Govt to provide space to set up banks in rural Bengal

The state government will help by providing basic infrastructure like space to set up banks in villages where they are yet to be established, the state Finance minister Amit Mitra has said.

Mitra held a meeting with the top brass of all banks and chambers of commerce at Nabanna on Monday. Senior officials of the state government were also present at the meeting in which district magistrates gave their views on the matter through a video conference.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed her concerns over the issue of villages in Bengal without banks while presiding over an administrative review meeting in Howrah on Friday. She had also expressed her wish to be present at the Finance minister's meeting but couldn't as she had to leave for Delhi before it was conducted.

Mitra said that it was decided in the meeting that the state government will be providing basic infrastructure to set up banks.

The government will provide space of around 300 to 400 square feet in panchayats and other office buildings where branches of nationalised banks could be set up.

The first issue that came up at the meeting was that there are around 706 gram panchayats and 359 villages with a population exceeding 5,000 that do not have any bank.

The district magistrates have been asked to file a report stating the availability of space in such villages that can be given to banks to set up their branches. A detailed report on this issue has to be submitted within the next 15 days.

The Chief Minister had recently also expressed concerns that farmers were not getting loans despite having Kisan Credit Cards (KCC).

Both the issues came up during the meeting held at the state Secretariat on Monday. A decision has been taken to take the necessary steps to ensure that loans are sanctioned to KCC card holders. At

present, farmers having KCC are entitled to loans of Rs 37,091 and a new target has been set to give them a loan of Rs 50,000.

Each of the SHGs gets loans of Rs 1.48 lakh. In 2016-17, a target was set to give a loan of Rs 3,263 crore to SHGs but Rs 3,417 crore was instead given as loan to the SHGs. The amount was a meagre Rs 600 crore in 2011-12.

At the same time, the target of sanctioning loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was Rs 26,000 crore while Rs 29,031 crores has been actually disbursed among the MSMEs.

In Monday's meeting, issues like the Artisan Credit Card and the setting up of more micro ATMs and ATMs in rural areas have also been discussed.