Wednesday, December 4, 2013

STATE LEVEL BANKERS’ COMMITTEE MEETS Poor functioning of ATMs in Mangan and RBI’s Clean Note Policy highlighted

GANGTOK, 03 Dec: The 39th State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) Meeting for Sikkim was convened by State Bank of India (SBI), the SLBC Convenor bank in Sikkim on today in Gangtok. The meeting was chaired by the new SBI Zonal Manager (ZM) from Siliguri, Satish D Patwardhan.
A press release informs that the meeting was convened to review the performance of commercial banks in achieving their Annual Credit Plan (ACP) targets in Sikkim for the quarter ended September 2013.
The meeting was attended by DR Nepal [Secretary, RMDD], RP Bhargawa [GM, NABARD, Gangtok] and Anil Kumar Yadav [DGM, RBI, Gangtok]. The meeting also had the attendance of controllers of Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India from Siliguri, other bankers from Sikkim and officials from the Line Departments of the State Government.
Delivering his welcome address the SBI, ZM highlighted the various achievements of the Lead Bank in Sikkim during the last quarter. He also stated that SBI will be setting up 9 new ATMs in Sikkim in the coming months.
Mr Nepal in his address stressed the need for more credit to the weaker and poorer sections of the society. He also informed about the launching of the World Bank sponsored North East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) in two districts of the State recently. NABARD, GM spoke on the various schemes of his bank and informed about the poor utilisation of subsidy linked schemes in the State.
DGM, RBI, Mr Yadav informed the house about the recently conducted Financial Outreach Programme at Mangshila village in North Sikkim which was attended by Anand Sinha [Deputy Governor of RBI]. He also informed that United Bank of India has proposed to open their branch in the village.
Reacting on recent news items appearing in some local dailies regarding non acceptance of scribbled banknotes from the public after 01 January, 2014 by commmercial banks, Mr Yadav clarified that as of now there is no such RBI notification, hence the members of the public need not panic.
However, he stated that the RBI directive on Clean Note Policy of 2001 and the recent circular of 14 August 2013 was addressed to the banks wherein they were asked to sensitise their dealing officers and tellers/staff to stop writing/scribbling of any kind on any part of the banknote to ensure the achievement of the objectives of RBI’s Clean Note Policy and also the mechanised processing of banknotes, the release mentions.
Mr Yadav also shared the concern of the District administration of North Sikkim regarding the non-functioing of ATMs of some banks in Mangan and urged their controllers to ensure the smooth functioing of the ATMs at the earliest. He also apprised the status of opening of a Currency Chest in Mangan by SBI.
The officials from UD&HD apprised the house about the Rajiv Rinn Yojana (RRY), Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) and NURLM (replacing the present SJSRY) and urged the bankers to extend credit to the weaker sections in urban areas for housing purpose. They also requested the SLBC to allow HUDCO to become a member of the SLBC.  The representative from SKVIB raised his concern about the delay in processing of PMEGP loan applications by some banks in Sikkim, it is added.
The meeting also reviewed the other agenda items such as the Credit Deposit Ratio, recovery of banks’ dues, Government Sponsored Schemes, Kisan Credit Cards etc. Mr A. K. Ghosh, RM, SBI, Gangtok, who conducted the proceedings of the meeting, also urged all the banks to furnish their mandatory returns/reports in time to the Lead Bank for timely conduct of the SLBC meetings.

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