Over 6 lakh accounts opened under PMJDY in Himachal

Over six lakh bank accounts have been opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Secretary P. Mitra said Friday while stressing there is need to focus on the rural areas.

"The PMJDY is getting momentum in the state and the focus should be in remote areas so that the people could be benefited by transfer of benefit directly in their accounts," Mitra said at a state-level bankers committee meeting organized by UCO Bank here.

Mitra said six of the 12 districts in Himachal have attained a level of more than 95 percent in terms of coverage of households having at least one bank account.

He urged all the stakeholders to put thrust on awareness and publicity campaign, aiming to cover all left-out households.

He said 24 new bank branches were opened in the quarter ending in September, thereby increasing the branch network to 1,859. Of these, 1,483 are in rural areas.

Principal Secretary (Finance) Shrikant Baldi urged the bankers to improve credit deposit ratio.

He said the banking outreach in the state has been consolidated well by maintaining 3,694 persons per branch average, a good indicator in a hilly state as compared to other states.

The state has a population of 68 lakh.