Dhindsa presides state level bankers committee's meeting

Chandigarh, February 10, 2015: Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Finance Minister Punjab today presided over the 131st meeting of State Level Bankers Committee, Punjab (SLBC) and appreciated the role of SLBC in financial administration of Punjab.

While addressing, Dhindsa said that banking institutes play a useful role in the overall development of state. He said that development of the state depends on the efficiency of banking sector.  He appreciated the banks for their active support for implementation of the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana .

While delivering his Keynote address Gauri Shanker, MD & CEO, Punjab National Bank & Chairman SLBC meeting appraised the house of important initiatives taken by RBI and Department of Financial Services, MOF, Govt. of India during intervening period between last and present meetings of SLBC which impacted the State economy in general and banking sector in particular.

He said that in order to cover 5476724 households in the State under Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a door to door survey was conducted by the Banks with the help of State Government.  "With the active support and guidance of the Punjab Government, State has been declared as saturated on December 8, 2014. To cover the entire households and to create awareness among the public for PMJDY Scheme, the banks in the State of Punjab organized 40481 camps and 2945090 accounts were opened covering the entire households in the State" he added.   

While reviewing the performance of banks under various key parameters in the State of Punjab for the period from January to December 2014, Gauri Shanker informed that, Commercial Banks and RRBs have opened 504 new Branches since January 2014, thus raising the total number of branches to 5623 as on 31.12.2014. No Block of Punjab is unbanked, he said.  The Banks in Punjab have installed 151 ATMs during quarter ending December 2014 taking their tally to 7280 as on 31.12.2014. 

The total deposits in Punjab have increased by 32099 crore from 222081 crore to 254180 crore thereby showing an increase of 14.45% during the review period.  He said that Agriculture advances have increased from 43235 crore as on December 2013 to 49303 crore as on December 2014 recording a growth of 14.03%.

Earlier, while welcoming the participants, Harpal Singh, Field General Manager & Convener SLBC Punjab, assured the State Government of pro-active support from the banking system to accelerate the economy of the State on a faster pace.

Jaspal Singh, Secretary Expenditure, Punjab, V.K. Meena, Secretary Animal Husbandry, dairy development & Fishries, Parveen Kumar Thind, Director, Institutional Finance & Banking, Punjab, Gulab Singh, Deputy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, New Delhi, Naresh Gupta, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Dr. Rakesh Gupta, General Manager, PNB, HO, New Delhi, Senior Officers of the State Government and Controlling Heads of the various Banks operating in the state of Punjab also attended the meeting.