Government schemes aiming at social justice are lagging in Dakshina Kannada district, said K.N. Vijay Prakash, Chief Executive Officer of the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat. Presiding over the 148th District Level Review Committee (DLRC) meeting held here on Friday, he said that specific information about such schemes, particularly for housing such as the ‘Namma Mane’ scheme, should be provided.
“Urban housing is a priority,” he said. Banks should receive as many applications as possible for the schemes, he added. The other schemes were Udyogini (for women beneficiaries), Chaithanya (for backward classes), Swawalambana (for minorities), Tribal Subplan (for Scheduled Tribes), Swarnajyothi Grama Swarozgar Yojane (SGSRY) and Swarnajothi Shahari Rozgar Yojana.
In reply to a feedback that some banks were not co-operating, he said that progress reports of SGSRY were sent to the Centre and the State and banks should not reject applications. “SGSRY and (schemes for) ST should be taken seriously,” he said.
Rural branches have done better than urban branches in resource mobilisation, said J.S. Shenoy, Deputy General Manager, Syndicate Bank, the lead bank in the district. “Rural branches are outpacing urban and semi-urban branches,” he said. Banks in the district had seen a business growth of 19.12 per cent (that is, Rs. 34,219.63 crore) as on September 30 last year. The growth in deposits of rural branches was above 34 per cent, surpassing the growth in deposits of urban branches, which was 20 per cent. The market share of rural branches in business volume had increased while that of urban and semi-urban branches had decreased marginally. He said that public sector banks should note that the deposit growth rate of private sector banks in the district was 45 per cent and of Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank was 53 per cent.
Mr. Shenoy said the progress made by the district was “spectacular” and “splendid” when compared with other districts with a particular reference to the growth in deposits by 22.41 per cent. However, he said the growth in advance of 12.89 per cent was inadequate.
Vijaykumar A. of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the 5 per cent reduction in the Credit Deposit ratio (from 53 per cent on September 30, 2011 to 48.83 per cent on September 30 2012) was a “most worrying” factor.
Bank accounts for the unbanked
Local self-government bodies should be involved in creating bank accounts for the unbanked, said K.N. Vijay Prakash, CEO, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat. “Involve panchayat development officers (PDOs), and GP, ZP, Mandal people, they are local people,” he said.
PDOs must themselves introduce people who have no accounts to the bank, he said.
He was replying to a participant who said that there had been no publicity given to people in the villages to open bank accounts and that “only sudden camps are undertaken”. One participant said that in Aladangady and two villages in Moodbidri, PDOs refused to assist in opening a bank account for a person saying they had not received such instructions.
Mr. Prakash said that such persons were “shirking from their responsibility” and a show cause notice would be issued to them if they did so.
He said it was unfortunate that they were waiting for instructions and that PDOs must be sensitised about the issue. “There is no excuse for any PDO,” he said.
