News & Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (RD/RX)
 

Udupi, Nov 16: ‘The banking services are yet to reach 94 percent of villages’, said K Devanand Upadhyaya of Syndicate Bank, Bangalore corporate office, during a programme, held at their regional office auditorium, here on Tuesday November 16.

There were 16,000 branches in the country when the Syndicate Bank was nationalized in 1969.  Although, there are 70,000 branches across the country, it has covered a mere six percent of remote villages, he added.

Upadhyaya was speaking during a function for the appointment of 50 chosen business representatives of the bank from the entire district. The appointed representatives would help in implementing union government’s economic inclusion project.

There are 60 lac villages in the country. The people in these villages are deprived of banking facilities which has posed setbacks to the objective of nationalization of public sector banks.  51 percent of Indian population has no bank accounts, said Upadhyaya.

He further said that despite Udupi being an advanced district in terms of literacy, 269 villages in the district still lack banking facilities. The Syndicate Bank has adopted 70 villages in the district for introducing economic inclusion project. The bank has the target of covering 1,620 villages in state for economic inclusion project by 2012, he added.

Upadhyaya stressed on the humanitarian aspect of implementing economic inclusion project in the country.

The zilla panchayat chief executive officer, Rajashekar inaugurated the programme. The identity cards and banners were distributed to the representatives on the occasion.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) assistant general manager Prasad Rao and director Dinakar S Poonja were present.