259 New Branches of Commercial Banks and Regional Rural Banks Opens in Panjab

By 121 News

Chandigarh 04^th November:- The 134^th meeting of State Level Bankers Committee, Punjab was convened by Punjab National Bank, the lead bank for the state of Punjab, at Chandigarh Madam Monika Thind, IES, Dy. Director, (Finance), Govt. of Punjab, was the Chief Guest of the meeting. Gauri Shanker, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank, presided over the meeting. Gulab Singh, Dy. Secretary, DFS, MOF,GOI, New Delhi, Ashok Gupta, Field General Manager & Convener SLBC Punjab, Madam Rashmi Fauzdar, Regional Director, RBI, Chandigarh, Dr. P.M. Ghole Chief General Manager, NABARD, Dr. Rakesh Gupta, General Manager, PNB, HO, New Delhi, Senior Officers of the State Government and Controlling Heads of the Banks operating in the state of Punjab were among those who attended the meeting.

While delivering his Key note address Gauri Shanker, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank & Chairman SLBC meeting appraised the house with great satisfaction that Banks and State Govt machinery has worked as a team in the State and with the excellent team work Banking Fraternity has created history by opening " 1,80,96,130 bank accounts in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign from 23^rd to 29^th August 2014. This achievement has found its way in Guinness Book of World records. Gauri Shanker further apprised that in order to take Jan Dhan to next level and requested all the banks, Insurance Companies and government officials to mobilize their staff in the state for covering maximum number of population under both social security schemes. Touching upon the background of launching of launching of Atal Pension Yojana(APY) Gauri Shanker apprised that the progress under APY is not up to the desired level and in order to create awareness, building confidence and ensuring smooth implementation of APY Scheme, PFRDA  is imparting training to each branch officials. He requested all the member banks to take the benefit of this opportunity for providing training to bank officials for successful implementation of APY in the State of Punjab.

Gauri Shanker urged upon bankers to monitor the progress in providing credit to MSME sector so that the stipulated targets of 20% growth in credit to MSME and 10% annual growth in number of Micro Enterprises  accounts be  achieved for the state as a whole. Weaker Sector Advances in the State have increased by 2.71% from `39234 crore as at September 2014 to ` 33549 crore as at September 2015.

While reviewing the progress of Self Help Groups, the house was informed that 34174 SHGs have been saving Linked and 23531 Credit-linked up to September 2015 in the State. Gauri Shanker, said that Micro financing has assumed greater importance and the role of banks have become even more demanding.  There is need to have close rapport with NGOs and other agencies including Social Welfare Agencies to help formation and linkage of SHGs.

 Deliberating on the issue of pending recovery certificates, Gauri Shanker informed that recovery of banks' dues is of paramount importance as it makes the lendable funds available with them. He requested the State Government Authorities to set up special courts for expeditious disposal of pending cases, particularly falling under category of 1-3 years.

Ashok Gupta, Field General Manager, Punjab assured the State Government of pro-active support from the banking system to accelerate the economy of the State on a faster pace.