Dena Bank gets Nabard social banking award

Dena Bank has been adjudged the best commercial bank in Gujarat under Nabard's Self Help Group - Bank Linkage Programme.

Panchmahal-Vadodara Gramin Bank was chosen the best regional rural bank while Sabarkantha District Co-operative Bank got the first prize among district central co-operative banks.

The presentations for 2003-03 were made by Gujarat governor Kailashpati Mishra on Wednesday.

The SHG-bank Linkage Programme of NABARD, which began in 1992, encourages the concept of social banking, under which banks lend credit to persons and groups who do not have a security for taking loans.

As of today, banks have disbursed loans of over Rs 20 crore to 36,000 SHGs in the state.

Dena Bank had 3113 SHG accounts with credit linkage of 1700 accounts. It disbursed loans worth Rs 208 lakh in 2002-03. Bank of Baroda was second while State Bank of India was awarded the third prize in the category.

In the rural regional bank (RRB) category, Panchmahal-Vadodara Gramin bank had 1981 SHG accounts, credit linkage of 76 accounts and loans worth Rs 189.60 lakh.

The Sabarkantha-Gandhinagar Gramin Bank and Banaskantha-Mehsana GraminBank got the second and third prizes in the category.

In the district central co-operative bank (DCCB) category, Sabarkantha DCCB got the first prize with 949 SHG accounts and a loan disbursement of Rs 47.76 lakh. Bharuch DCCB got the second prize while Banaskantha DCCB got the third prize.

Nabard chief general manager Bhawar Puri said banks of Gujarat have reacted well to the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme and over three lakh families have so far got loans without any security. "In fact, many banks have themselves come forward to form SHGs," Puri said.

Emphasising on the need for promoting social banking for rural development, the NabardCGM said banks have a major role to play in this, as it has been seen that recovery of loans to SHGs is over 99 per cent.

He added that in the present fiscal, while loans of Rs 20 crore have been disbursed under the scheme in Gujarat, the figure all over the country is around Rs 200 crore.

Kailashpati Mishra said the awards will motivate banks and other institutions to provide credit to those under the poverty line.

Others who were present for the function included RBI regional director Vani Sharma, Ela Bhatt, founder-chairperson of SEWA, Purshottam Kumar, GM, zonal office of Dena Bank, S V Singh, GM, SBI and S P Agarwal, DyGM, Bank of Baroda, North Gujarat zone.