Karaiba Chawang
Kohima | May 26
In response to the call made by the State Chief Minister and Chief Secretary, the special State Level Bankers meet today ended with lots of promises for the development of Nagaland. Important resolutions included that all the banks in Nagaland will give Rs 296 crore assistance in the form of loans, which is the approved state annual action plan for the year 2006.
The bankers meet resolved to go for credit expansion to be allocated for Self Help Groups (SHG). This year, 970 SHG would be formed, as per the resolution.
The resolutions also said that in all the 21 un-banked blocks, the bank will have a satellite office. However this office will be open for 2-3 days in a week only. This is because the populations in some of these blocks are too small to transact business for the entire week, said Ram Muivah, Joint Secretary, Union Finance Ministry (Banking). He said that the bankers have decided to give VDBs the role of business facilitators with the banks. About 540 VBDs will be selected this year for this purpose, he added.
As facilitators, the VDBs will identify, verify, select, create awareness and provide assistance in recovery of loan from the customers to the bank.
Extension of banking account without field in the rural areas is another important resolution adopted today. This will help people to open their account even without having any balance, the resolution further said.
Besides, the SBI has assured to enhance 11 ATM centers, especially in Dimapur, where about 400 persons use it daily. This is above the national average, so the bank has decided to increase the number of ATM centers, said Ram Muivah.
It also resolved that the SBI will provide internet banking. However, since the BNSL network, which is the only telecom services in the NE region, is not so good, it may take some time to implement, said Ram Muivah.
The state government is also to give consent to certain proposals made by the bankers, like the crop insurance policy, waiver of stamp duty on Agriculture products and Self Help Groups.
However, the state government is to seek clarification from the RBI on stamp duty, and once it is cleared, the state will give consent, the resolution said.
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