Punjab Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra today called upon banks including private ones in the state to focus on lending to farm sector and below poverty line population for overall economic development of the state.
Addressing the 128th meeting of State Level Bankers' Committee (Punjab), Rakhra said it was a matter of great concern that farmers of Punjab could not sustain the agriculture growth due to slow offtake of farm credit.
He said it was regrettable that credit deposit ratio last year declined by 4.32 per cent from 85.49 per cent in March 2013 to 81.17 per cent this year reflecting that credit disbursal of the bank could not keep pace with deposit collected from the state.
The Minister said Punjab Government was focusing on rural uplift and banks would have to become equal partners in this progress.
Focusing on doorstep banking, Rakhra said that banks would have to focus on technological innovation to provide banking at doorstep especially in the remote rural areas.
While delivering address, PNB, ED, Gauri Shankar advised banks to open one account per household in the allocated wards in villages in urban and sub service areas in rural areas.
He apprised that the banks in the state have provided banking services to 6,150 unbanked villages with population less than 2,000.
