Haryana govt asks banks to give loan to students

The Haryana government today asked all banks to give loans on priority basis to students, women and weaker sections of the society.
The banks should not only strive to generate profits, but also fulfill their social obligations like providing timely loans to needy persons as per the schemes of the Government so that the benefits could percolate down to grass root level, Haryana Chief Secretary S C Choudhary said.
Choudhary was speaking in the 127th meeting of State Level Bankers' Committee, Haryana which was convened by Punjab National Bank here today.
Rakesh Sethi, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank assured the state government full cooperation by member banks in discharging their responsibilities towards strengthening and uplifting the Socio-economic condition of the people of the State and achieving different missions set by the government.

Sethi said that under the 'One Account per Household' initiative of Department of Financial Services, the banks in the State have linked 92 per cent and 97 per cent households in rural and urban areas respectively on December 31, 2013 in Haryana.
He said that DBT scheme has been extended in 120 more districts in the country including 13 districts of Haryana on January 28, 2014.

The scheme is already being implemented in the districts of Ambala and Sonipat.
In Haryana, 4077 unbanked villages with population less than 2000 have been identified and allocated to various Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) for providing banking services.

While reviewing the performance of banks under various key parameters in the state for the period from January 2013 to December 2013, Sethi said that banking system in the State has achieved all national goals.
He said commercial banks and RRBs have opened 555 new branches during the period under review, raising the total number of branches to 3705 as on December 31, 2013.
Haryana does not have a single unbanked block.
With installation of 1,203 ATMs from April 2013 to December 2013, the tally of ATMs has gone upto 4574 till December 31, 2013.