The Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India has directed Banks to make an effort to cover at least one lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) by March 2012. There are total 1.55 lakh SHGs to be credit linked in the State, out of which 29,622 SHGs have already been covered by banks. The decision was taken at the Central Board of Directors meet in Kolkata on Thursday. Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India chaired the meeting. All the 7486 villages with population of more than 2000, will be covered by banking facilities by March 2012 under the Financial Inclusion Plan. Banks had already covered 4348 villages by November 2011, RBI said. The Central Bank has directed the state government of West Bengal to support its initiative of extending electronic benefit transfer (EBT), to begin with, in four districts where pilot project had already been initiated. EBT facility will be extended to all the districts in West Bengal covering all villages. Banks are asked to work out modalities with the active support of State governments in this regard. RBI will conduct a survey in West Bengal to assess the ground realities with regard to loans to be availed by General Credit Card holders. The survey will be conducted in partnership with State government and banks in four districts including Murshidabad, Howrah, Malda and North 24-Parganas. The survey would be completed by end-December 2011. Based on the findings of the survey, the SLBC will decide on the way forward. RBI has also asked Banks to achieve credit deposit (CD) ratio of 65 per cent by the end of March 2012. Current CD ratio in the State was 62 per cent which was significantly lower than the national average of 74 per cent. RBI said that a higher target for CD ratio to be achieved during 2012-13 would be reviewed after that but would largely be subject to demand for large corporate credit. The urgency of extending State contribution for recapitalisation of the three Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in West Bengal necessary for their improved performance was reiterated during the meet. In order to give boost to credit in the State and to ensure district level participation, the Chief Minister has agreed to attend one State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting in the next three months. Further, it was also decided during the meeting that the District Magistrate, Regional Managers of banks and officials of the Reserve Bank will attend the District Consultative Committee meetings to encourage credit enhancement and financial inclusion at the district level.
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