Tripura urges RBI for shifting banks to rural areas 

Agartala, Sep 5 : Tripura Finance Minister Badal Choudhury urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct the nationalised banks to shift their branches to the original locations, which were relocated in urban pockets a few years ago following the rising spate of insurgency. 

Addressing a seminar organised by RBI here yesterday, Mr Choudhury said during the period of insurgency a number of bank branches had been relocated from the rural areas to urban centres against the wishes of the state government but now peace had been restored; so banks should resume services in the original areas of their operation for the benefit of rural people. 

Stressing on the need for further expansion of the banking network covering the entire rural region, he underlined that currently 265 branches of various nationalised banks were operating in Tripura and only 145 branches or 55 per cent of the total were located in the rural areas. 

Mr Choudhury also demanded to open a RBI office here to improve the banking activities in Tripura while seeking RBI’s intervention on the gradual declining feature of credit-deposit ratio in the Northeast. 

Referring to the decision taken in a meeting chaired by the then Union Finance Minister Mr Jaswant Sinha at Shillong in 2001, he said that CD ratio in NE region was standing at 30 per cent and would be increased to bring it at par with national average of 58 per cent within the next three years.  

''While the CD ratio increased to 66 per cent at the national level, it declined to 29 per cent in the region,'' Mr Choudhury said, adding in order to cater to the entire population it was necessary to open banking outlets in at least 51 locations in the state.  

Keeping in view the menace of fake currency, he urged the RBI to provide fake notes identification devices to all the bank branches and take appropriate initiatives so as to step up micro credit and lending opportunities to the priority sectors.