Nitish asks banks to achieve target of opening 750 branches

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today expressed disappointment over slow establishment of new bank branch in the state and asked the bankers to work for opening one bank branch in each of 8406 panchayats.
In the last meeting of state level Bankers committee in which Union Finance minister P Chidambaram had also participated it was decided that 750 new bank branches would be opened in the state in the current fiscal, but only 76 new branches have only been established so far, Kumar said in a meeting of Bankers committee.
The CM asked bankers to work for opening one bank branch in each of 8406 gram panchayats in the state.

He said that the state government has approved money for constructing panchayat bhawan in 1400 panchayats at a cost of Rs 80 lakh each. He said if bank operation could also be started from these panchayat bhawans it would be of great help at grassroot level, according to an official release.
Kumar urged the bankers to achieve the credit plan target set by them itself.
He said complaints are coming in implementation of Kisan credit card and Indira Awas Yojna, which should be addressed immediately.

The Bihar CM said that it was planned to provide educational loan to 80,000 students in the current financial year. But, against this only 2500 people have been provided this facility so far, he said and urged the banks to speed up the process.

Warning non-performing banks, the CM said that government money would be kept in only those banks which have good performance in the eyes of state.
Industry minister Renu Kushwaha, Agriculture minister Narendra Singh, Reserve Bank of India Regional General Manager K V Rao and State Bank of India Deputy General Manager Jeevan Das Narayan were present during the meeting among others.