Sunday, December 21, 2008

Tripura Govt Slams Bankers in Northeast

Agartala, Dec 21 : The Tripura government today expressed displeasure over the services of commercial banks operating in the Northeast and demanded immediate improvement of banking system in the region.

Addressing State Level Banker`s Committee (SLBC) meeting here, Tripura Finance Minister Badal Choudhury said despite the initiatives from the Central government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other forums for improvement in banking services in the region during past few years satisfactory steps were not taken to improvise the services.

A high-level committee under the chairmanship of RBI Deputy Governor was constituted and asked to submit report on improvement of banking services in the region, including improvement of Credit Deposit Ratio (CDR), financial institutions and micro-credits but most of them remained on paper as a result of which no improvement has taken place, Mr Choudhury underscored.

He demanded to review the previous resolutions of the meeting related to improvement of banking services in the region and finalise the time bound action plan before resolving any more decisions.
Besides, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Chairman-cum-Managing Director UBI, General Manager RBI and other top officials of other commercial banks and financial institutions also attended the meeting and stressed to expand the banking services in rural areas.

”Despite opposition from the State government, commercial banks in the State had already shifted as many as 14 branches to semi-urban locations” Mr Sarkar said, adding at a time, when RBI liberalised the formalities for opening new rural branches to ensure 100 per cent banking coverage, the banks in Northeast were closing the branches from rural pockets.

He also demanded to open at least one branch for three-four villages in the State, while the bankers assured to look into the issues promissing Rs 200 crore would be invested by the nationalised banks in the State during next year.

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