Union Minister Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad conducts Special SLBC Meeting in Guwahati, Aizawl

GUWAHATI: Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Union Minister of State for Finance, Government of India, visited the States of Assam and Manipur and conducted Special SLBC Meeting in Guwahati on October 27 for the state of Assam and on October 29 in Imphal for the state of Manipur.

State Bank of India convened the meetings at both places where Dr Ajanta Neog, Finance Minister of Assam, and Dr.Yumnam Joykumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of Manipur, were present. Key decisions were taken such as opening of 57 bank branches in the state of Assam and 30 branches in Manipur. To inculcate financial literacy among the people, it was decided to arrange for mobile financial literacy van across 33 districts of Assam and 16 districts of Manipur in coordination with NABARD. The initiative will help in creating financial awareness about banking transactions, products and services, digital transactions and also Government of India Social Security Schemes like Atal Pension Yojana (APY), PMJJBY, PMSBY and Jandhan Accounts. The Minister of State for Finance also directed banks in the state of Assam to increase the Credit Deposit Ratio (CDR) to 60 per cent from the existing 55 per cent and in the state of Manipur to increase further from the present 66 per cent. The Minister appreciated the banks in Manipur for extending loans to street vendors under PM SVANidhi schemes where number of beneficiaries per lakh population is higher than the national average. Similarly, he praised the performance of banks for sanctioning PMMY loans to beneficiaries in Assam which is higher than the national average, stated a press release.

On this occasion credit outreach programmes were conducted at Guwahati and two credit outreach programmes were conducted at Manipur (Wangoi and Imphal) where all the banks participated. In Guwahati, 188 loan sanction letters amounting to Rs.21.92 crore were handed over to beneficiaries of Assam by State Bank of India. Similarly, in two credit camps in Manipur sanction letters were distributed to 585 beneficiaries with total loan amount of Rs 39.16 crore by SBI.

State Bank of India has opened two branches at Motbung and Jiribam in Manipur which was inaugurated jointly by Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad and N Biren Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur. With the opening of these two branches, now SBI has branches in all the 16 districts of Manipur, increasing the total number of branches in the state to 52. RS Ramesh, Chief General Manager, SBI NE Circle, convened both the special SLBC meetings in Guwahati and Imphal in the presence of all the representatives of member banks and government officials of both the states.

Also Read: Will improve Banking sector in Assam: Union Minister Dr Bhagawat Karad

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