Port Blair, Feb 02: The Islands Chief Secretary, Anand Prakash called upon the Bankers both from public and private sector to make all out efforts to improve the lending in the priority sector. Inaugurating the Union Territory Level Bankers’ meet held at Megapode resort at Port Blair this morning, he expressed concern over the low credit deposit ratio, especially in the priority sector lending(PSL), under which the banks are required to lend 40 % of their loans to agriculture, exports and other economically weaker sections.
Pointing out the difficulties faced by the Industries in the islands owing to lack of infrastructural facilities and other constraints, he sought the support of the bankers through financial assistance to the entrepreneurs of these islands and thereby paving way for the region’s economic development.
The Chief Secretary revealed that the significant advantages in the islands for industrial development are rich resources of wood and vast potentials for tourism. However, the wood industry suffered a setback following the ban on tree cutting as per the orders of the Supreme Court. To boost the tourism in the islands, the administration already took initiatives to develop certain islands including Little Andaman and Long island as major tourist destinations, he added.
Addressing the bankers, A K Bhattacharya, General Manger of RBI, Kolkata stressed the need for concerted efforts by all the bankers to achieve a state of full financial inclusion in the region.
He appealed to the bankers to make sincere attempts to cover all the 260 villages in the islands under banking network through business correspondents, mobile banking, extensions counters or full-fledged branches to offer banking services to the people at grass roots. He also clarified that there is no need for any permission from the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to open new commercial branches by the banks in the un-banking rural areas.
Emphasizing on the need to improve the CD ratio in A & N region, he said the RBI already directed the banks to fix the target of 5 % improvement in the incremental Credit Deposit Ratio(ICDR) for the current quarter. He categorically stated that CD ratio can be improved only by fixing the target to be achieved by the end of March this year. He also asked them to improve their performance in the issue of Kissan Credit cards to the farmers, as the targets have not yet been met by any bank.
The RBI General Manager also appealed to the bankers to spread the financial literacy and education among the rural populace in the islands.
Speaking on the occasion, the General Manager, NABARD, G Tarai informed that the NABARD supported a large number of women self Help groups (SHG) in the islands through financial assistance by the Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank (ANSCB). However, heexpressed concern over the fact that out of the 3800 SHGs registered in the region, only 1800 are credit linked and the remaining are defunct. He stated that the NGOs who supported the SHGs in the aftermath of the Tsunami left the islands subsequently, causing most of the SHGs non functional in the absence of proper support and guidance.
He announced that the NABARD would extend its fullest support to revive these defunct SHGs and release financial assistance of Rs. 3000 to each of them through NGOs. He also called upon the NGOs in the region to come forward to revive these SHGs in association with the NABARD.
Briefing on the financial inclusion programme, he revealed that the ANSCB already issued Cooperative smart cards to the people in the rural areas and started disbursing the payments like old age pension, widow pension and other benefits to the beneficiaries at their doorsteps. The ANSCB has now come in to the Core Banking Services (CBS) platform and the entire works will be completed in the next two months to make it fully functional on CBS, he said.
Mr Tarai further informed that the NABARD planned to open four new financial literacy centres in the remote islands including Nancowry and Diglipur.
The senior officers from State Bank of India also spoke. The meet ended with discussion on various issues. The Managers and senior officers from different public sector and private banks and heads of different departments of the administration attended the meet.(PIB)
