More than 68k K'taka villagers to get banking services by 2012

As many as 3,395 villages in Karnataka with a population of more than 2,000 would be covered by banking services by March 2012, officials said today.

Those villages would be provided with banking facilities/ services either by opening a bank branch or through any of the various forms of information and communication technology based models, including through business correspondents.

This was stated by Basant Seth, Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank and Chairman of the State Level Bankers'Committee (SLBC), Karnataka, at the 114th meeting of the SLBC here.
    
"Banks have to implement financial inclusion plan in right earnest and achieve the target by putting in place required infrastructure/technology," Seth said.
    
He said the unique identification programme (UID) would be a "great facilitator" for financial inclusion, as it would help bank branches comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC) norms and open no-frill accounts relying on a UID registration.
    
Reviewing the performance of the banks in Karnataka, Seth said they have disbursed Rs 7,696 crore during the quarter ended June, 2010, against the projection of Rs 38,952 crore for 2010-11, achieving 19.76 per cent of the annual target.
    
The SLBC meeting is convened to review the performance of the banking industry in the economic development of Karnataka under various parameters such as branch network, growth in deposits, advances, implementation of various central and state government schemes, Self Help Groups and micro-finance and recovery of bank dues.
    
Senior officials, including Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner of Karnataka, Abhijith Dasgupta, General Manager (Officer in-charge), RBI, K R Das and General Manager, NABARD, H N V Prasad were among those present.