While stressing the importance of bank services for the speedy development of the State, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that such services must be made available in every nook and corner of the State, particularly in the rural areas.
“The State Government will provide all kinds of necessary support to the banks. Banks should set goals to provide loans to the disadvantaged sections of the society. Besides, the banks should not indulge too much in the tendency of rejecting loan applications,” he said while addressing the 58th State level bankers’ committee meet on Friday.
He stressed on the need to have better coordination between banks and the Government departments to ensure that more and more people are benefited by the programmes and schemes the Government is executing to better the lot of the common people.
“As the banks fix their target they should also fix the target of reducing the rate of the rejection of the applications by 5 to 10 percent. To ensure this, the bank officers should take personal interests in the applications and address the faults present in the applications so as to enable the applicants to file fresh faultless applications. The banks should also fix target to disburse loan for the backward caste people already identified for the State's affirmative action. They must see to it that at least five percent of the backward class youth turn entrepreneurs,” CM stressed.
He appreciated the six months training given by NIESBUD to the women of ‘Sapera Basti’, calling it encouraging.
He further said that despite the State having limited resources, all possible efforts are being made to empower the women self-help groups (SHGs). The banks of the State, including the State banks, have helped several women self-help groups, he said, adding that the State Government has taken several initiatives to support Start Up programme.
The CGM, SBI Alok Kumar Chaudhary said that the Credit-Deposit ratio (CDR) of the State is 58 percent. He further said that 17 clusters have been identified by the Reserve Bank of India to promote MSME.
The Chief Secretary, Shatrughan Singh, Secretary Amit Negi and the Joint Secretary, Finance Ministry, Government of India, Manish Gupta, were among senior officials present at the meeting.