Around two lakh accounts opened under PMJDY

Chief Secretary Shri P. Mitra
complimented the banks for opening 1,92,500
accounts within a week under Pradhan Mantri
Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) in the State. He said
that bankers should aim to open bank account of
all left out households both in urban and rural
areas of the State before the end of October this
year.
Shri P. Mitra, while presiding
over H.P. State level Bankers Committee (SLBC)
meeting here today, said that Himachal Pradesh
was well placed in banking sector as economy
and education of the people was quite good as
compared to other States. He said that in
Himachal Pradesh there was 3757 per branch
population against national average of above
13000 having high proportion of 89 percent of
households availing banking services.
Chief Secretary said that still
there was a need of greater participation by
financial sector to increase usage of basic
banking services through technology enabled
services, innovation of products and services.
Shri P. Mitra said that the credit
growth during the first quarter of current fiscal
was 20.15 percent as compared to deposit
growth of 12.23 percent which has helped in
improved Credit Deposit (CD) ratio. He said that
the national parameters set by Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) for financing to priority sector,
agriculture sector, weaker section and women
were achieved by the banks except Differential
Rate of Interest (DRI). He said that banks should
open branches in unbanked areas as out of 16
branches opened during the first quarter only 6
branches were opened in unbanked areas.
He said that all the sponsoring
agencies and departments should sponsor 150%
to 200% loan proposals under different
government sponsored programmes and schemes
to the banks as the performance was not upto
the mark in this area. He said that banks should
provide liberal funding in the rural areas as there
was vast scope of development in agriculture and
allied activities in the State.
Principal Secretary, Finance Dr.
Shrikant Baldi said that State Government would
provide all assistance to achieve the allocated
targets of the banks. He said that State
Government would also coordinate in improving
recovery performance of the banks and a Joint
Sub Committee of Government officers and
bankers could be formed, if needed.
Chairman and Managing Director,
UCO Bank Shri Arun Kaul said that the outreach
of banking services in the State was one of the
best in the country and under the new PMJDY
scheme, banks were identifying the left out
households to achieve the cent percent target. He
said that the total deposits of the banks in the
State have recorded year over year growth of
12.23 percent to Rs. 65877.48 crore from Rs.
58698.36 crore during the previous year. He said
that total advances of the banks have recorded
growth of 20.15 percent to Rs. 29899.17 crore
from Rs. 24884.41 crore during the previous
year.
Shri Kaul said that CD ratio in
the State was 65.96 percent as of June, 2014
and it has registered growth of 1.23 percent over
the previous year. He said that Banks in the State
have network of 1827 branches with more than
80 percent branches located in rural areas out of
which 149 branches had been opened previous
year. He said that there were 1497 ATMs
operational in the State. He sought the help of
State Government to improve the recovery
performance of banks which was recorded 71.33
percent upto June last.
General Manager, UCO Bank and
Convenor, SLBC Shri V.K. Shrivastva while
welcoming the Chief Guest highlighted the
performances of various banks during first
quarter.
Principal Secretary, Social
Justice and Empowerment Shri P.C. Dhiman,
Special Secretary Finance Shri Amandeep Garg,
Director, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
Shri R. Selvam, Regional Director, RBI Shri I.S.
Negi, Chief General Manager NABARD Shri K.P.
Chand, senior executives from banks and senior
officers of the State Government participated in
the meeting.