Banks should lay special emphasis on the flagship schemes like self employment, crop insurance scheme, MUDRA and social security schemes, said the Finance Minister Prakash Pant while addressing 64th State level Bankers Committee (SlBC) meeting here on Tuesday. He said that the State wants to develop 670 Nyay Panchayats as growth centres and for it the banks should cooperate with the Government. Addressing the meeting, the Chief Secretary (CS) Utpal Kumar Singh said that all the directives given in the meeting should be followed and targets should be achieved.

In the meeting, it was disclosed that at the end of third quarter this year, the banks of the State have distributed loans worth Rs 12219.41 Crores out of the targeted Rs18468.80 Crores for the year.  The Credit -Deposit ratio for the financial year 2017-18 at the end of December stands at 57% which is 1%  more than last quarter. It was also informed that banks have distributed loans of Rs1659.65 Crores for agriculture allied activities in the current financial year. Similarly loans worth Rs15546 Crores have been distributed to the 293528 industrial units under Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. For achieving the target of doubling the income of farmers of by the year 2022 , the banks have decided to provide more finance to Argo ancillary activities like dairy, goat rearing, poultry, Bee culture and fish culture.

The banks were directed to complete the Aadhar verification process of all bank accounts till March 31, 2018. The banks informed that awareness campaign about Aadhar, PM insurance scheme, Atal Pension scheme and digital transactions are being done. For ensuring connectivity the banks have ordered installation of V sets for all 716 Sub Service Areas (SSA) where there is no connectivity. In the meeting the banks were asked to coordinate with linear departments so that the banks continue to play key role in social and economic development of the State.

The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary Radha Raturi, Principal Secretary Rural development and MSME Manisha Panwar, Regional Director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Subrat Das, Chief General Manager  National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) D N Magar and General Manager Ajit Singh Thakur. The representatives of all banks also participated in the meeting.