Banks gear up to meet RBI target

RANCHI: All leading nationalised banks in the state have joined hands to achieve targets set by Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao, who during his recent visit expressed dissatisfaction over the lending trends of the banks.  In consultation with the banks, the regional office of the RBI has chalked out an action plan to give impetus to the banks' financial inclusion programme and improve the credit-deposit (CD) ratio. Addressing a joint press conference on Friday, senior officials of the nationalised banks along with RBI General Manager H N Panda and Chief General Manager of the NABARD M.V.Ashok gave details of the programme taken up by the banks in this month. General Manger of Allahabad Bank, the convener bank for state-level bankers committee (SLBC), D Chakravorty said all the banks in the state would take up special financial inclusion drive on January 17 and 18 during which no-frill accounts for customers would be opened.  During his two-day visit in December, the RBI Governor took serious exception to the fact that all blocks in state did not have banking facility. Panda said branches of various banks had been opened in every block within a month and the Bank of India would soon open a branch in the only new block, Gudri.  "There are 1,541 villages in Jharkhand with a population of over 2,000 where banks have to extend facilities by March 2012 as per the RBI directive," he said.