148th State level review meeting of Bankers Committee was held here today.Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Anil Kumar Khachi presided over the meeting. He read the message of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in the meeting.In his message, Chief Minister said that banking sector was playing a vital role in socio-economic upliftment of the people of the State. He said that about 2131 bank branches and 1879 bank mitras were catering to the needs of the people in far flung areas of the State. He said that each branch of the bank was providing banking services to average 3221 people which was far better than national average of 11000 people per branch of the bank.Jai Ram Thakur said that State Government has launched Mukhya Mantri Swawlamban Yojna for providing employment and self employment opportunities to the youth of the State. A provision of subsidy has been made to start self employment ventures by the youth between the age group of 18 to 35 years. He said that provision of five percent interest subvention has been made on interest on the loans up to Rs. 40 lakh raised from the banks for the period of three years. He urged the banks to provide loans easily to the youth so that they could start their own self employment ventures.
Chief Minister said that in order to encourage private hospital facilities in rural areas, a new scheme 'Swasthya Mein Sahbhagita' has been launched in the State. He said that investment subsidy of 25 percent would be provided on investment of rupees one crore besides five percent interest subsidy for three years on loans taken from banks. He said that the banks should also encourage this investment so that people of remote area could get better health education nearer to their homes.He said that effective steps have been taken to associate more and more people with banks under the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna'. He said that over 10 lakh people had opened bank accounts in the State under the scheme. The State Government has recently started 'Jan Manch' Programme for speedy redressal of public grievances at their door steps. He urged the banks to participate in this programme so that people living in rural areas could be educated regarding various schemes being implemented by the State and Central Governments.Chief Minister said that Cash Deposit Ratio in the State was about 44.82 percent which needed to be increased. He said that there was immense potential for providing loans in sectors like tourism, food processing, power, small scale industries etc. in the State. He said that the banks should work to raise the cash deposit ratio to 60 percent as fixed by Reserve Bank of India.
Jai Ram Thakur said that the Government of India has fixed the target to double the income of farmers by the year 2022 and the State Government was also endeavouring to achieve the same. He said that for this stress was being laid on providing better irrigation facilities, quality seeds and fertilizers, better marketing facilities and dairy enterprises development schemes etc.He said that till March, 2018, the banks provided 5625.68 crore loans to 4.18 lakh farmers under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme. He urged the banks to provide more loans to the farmers so that they could opt latest farming techniques to enhance their income.Anil Kumar Khachi said that under 'Gram Swaraj Abhiyan' 93 villages of the State had been selected for making them financial inclusive. He said that in the second phase of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, a target to achieve Chamba district as financial inclusive has been fixed. He urged the banks to come forward to achieve the target. General Manager, UCO Bank Vivek Kaul said that the banking sector had achieved an annual growth of six percent and its deposit and advances were Rs. 1.06 lakh crore and Rs. 37481 crore respectively.Regional Director (RD), Reserve Bank of India Amar Nath and Chief General Manager, NABARD Kishan Singh also spoke on the occasion.Associate General Manager, UCO Bank J.N. Kashyap presented vote of thanks.Senior officers of State Government and banking Sector were also present on the occasion among others.