FinMin asks HP Banks to hold camps to provide loans

The banks in Himachal Pradesh will hold customer outreach programmes amid sluggish economic scenario, following the direction of Union Finance Ministry, J N Kashyap, Convenor of state level banking committee (SLBC) said.

Kashyap, who is also deputy general manager (DGM) of UCO Bank in HP, said the customer outreach programme will be held at five places - Shimla, Solan, Hamirpur, Mandi and Kullu district - from October 3 to 5 in the first phase.

While State Bank of India (SBI) will organise the camps in Shimla and Solan, Punjab National Bank (PNB) will hold the programme in Hamirpur, Mandi and Kullu districts, he added.

HP SBI deputy general manager Pawan Kumar said all nationalised and private banks will put up their stalls under one roof to provide information on home, vehicle, personal, agriculture, mudra as well as other loans. And the application for these loans will be processed during the programmes.

The SBI DGM said the camps will be organised near Kart Road in Shimla from October 3 to 5, whereas it would held at Thodo ground in Solan on October 3 and 4.

In reply to a question, Pawan Kumar expressed hope the camps being organised during Navratras will definitely help a lot to overcome the ongoing recession as people will be able to get more loan and the money would be circulated in the market.

Both the officials said that new accounts will also be opened of the desired persons in the camps.

Meanwhile, Kashyap said that it was decided to hold camps in Kangra district but later it was replaced by Kullu as model code of conduct came into force in Kangra due to bypoll in Dharamshala.

The SLBC convenor said the camps in Kangra, Sirmour (where model election code of conduct came into force in due to bypoll in Pachhad) and other districts might be held during phase two.