Vadodara: About 3,500 villages in
Gujarat, each with more than 2,000 population, will get
banking facilities thanks to initiative taken by Reserve Bank
of India (RBI), Gujarat State Bankers Committee (SLBC) sources
said today.
RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty said this at a
public contact programme held by RBI at Padra town in Vadodara
district on last March 20.
The programme was attended by top ranking senior
officials from State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank
and other banks and large number of people from the villages
surrounding the area.
The people attending the programme had pleaded with
Chakrabarty to look into their demand for banking facilities
for them in their villages.
Talking after the programme, Chakrabarty said,
"the primary aim of Reserve Bank for holding such public
contact programme was to reach unreachable masses to brief
them about banking facilities available to them for
qualitative improvement of lives of common persons."
He pointed out that there are only 30,000 villages out
of a total of 6,00,000 villages in the country with banking
facilities and it is RBI`s endeavour to cover all these
villages through technology in providing of banking facilities
to them.
The RBI is asking banks to ensure that villages with
2,000 people and more get banking facilities, which has become
possible due to the banking technology. Despite
nationalisation of banks by the then prime minister Indira
Gandhi 40 years ago and opening of regional rural banks (RRBs)
in 1975, the common man finds it difficult to get banking
facilities, Chakrabarty had pointed out.
Hence to provide banking facilities to common man, the
public contact programmes have been undertaken by RBI, he
stated.
Meanwhile, officials of the Gujarat State Bankers
Committee (SLBC) headed by Mukesh Kumar Jain General Manager,
Dena Bank told PTI that 3,500 villages of the state with a
population of more than 2,000 are expected to be covered under
the banking facilities.
The banking facilities will help people to deposit
their savings in banks and get loans for various purposes. The
SBI, Bank of Baroda and Dena bank have taken up the task of
providing banking facilities to these 3,500 villages in the
state.
It is good news for people of these villages who are
deprived of banking facilities and they expect to get it
during year-long golden jubilee year celebrations of the
Foundation of Gujarat state beginning from May 1, 2010 to
May 1st 2011.
PTI
