16 districts in Bihar to be brought under Financial Inclusion

Patna, Jun 19 (UNI) Every family in all 16 backward districts of Bihar will soon have an account in public sector banks as part of the government policy to bring them under Financial Inclusion.

This was decided at the state level Bankers' Committee meeting here yesterday under the chairmanship of Union minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal. Among others Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio and State Bank of India(SBI) Chairman were present.

Expressing concern at the very low credit-deposit ratio of around 30 per cent by public sector banks in the state, Mr Bansal urged them to improve the sitation with some immediate steps like enabling at least one of every family in the backward districts to open a bank account in any of the commercial banks and encourage them to participate the banking activities through various means.

''Only through such time-bound activities, the government plan to implement the financial inclusion in banking sector would be a reality,'' he said.

Hailing the role of Punjab National Bank(PNB)and SBI in taking a lead role in this direction by initiating steps to bring at least six of the 16 selected districts under total financial inclusion by this year end, Mr Bansal said while PNB had taken charge of Bhojpur, Gaya and Rohtas districts, the SBI would open bank account in every family residing in Buxar, Sitamarhi and East Champaran during the current fiscal.

Referring to the low agricultural credit limit in Bihar, primarily because of poor recovery mechanism,the union minister urged the state government to take effective measures to ensure higher recovery so that that credit disbursal to farmers would no longer be a non-viable propositions to commercial banks.

Also speaking on the occasion the Deputy Chief minister referred to the state government's decision to amend the Public Debt Recovry mechanism by providing more teeth to it.'The government will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the recovery of credits in all sectors was to the statisfaction of banks', he assured the meeting and urged the bankers to increase their credit disbursal portfolios for a speedy economic growth of Bihar along with the rest of the country.

Also speaking on the occasion SBI Chairman promised to take a bigger role by the bank both in terms of financial inclusion of the people in the backward regions of Bihar as well as to the state's overall economic growth by opening more rural branches and extending higher credits limits to the poor.

UNI