District Consultative Committee meeting for West Sikkim held at Gyalshing

TWO NEW SISCO BANK BRANCHES TO COME UP AT HEEGAON AND SOMBARIA IN JUNE
GANGTOK, 21 June: The District Consultative Committee (DCC) meeting of West Sikkim was held at Gyalshing on 20 June. The meeting was chaired by District Collector of West Sikkim, Santa Pradhan and was attended by Assistant General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, Gangtok, Anil Kumar Yadav, LDM, State Bank of India, Gangtok, A K Das, along with branch managers of various banks in the district, NABARD officer and senior officers from line departments of West Sikkim.
During the meeting all the banking and developmental activities of the district were reveiwed for the quarter ended 31 March, 2012. During the deliberations DC, West, Mr Pradhan informed the house that there was a need for more brick and mortar branches in the district and he has received representations from the public for opening commercial bank branches at Rinchenpong, Kaluk and Yuksom.
He further added that due to heavy influx of tourists in West Sikkim and more particularly at Pelling there was a need to have foreign exchange facilities at State Bank of India, Pelling branch. He urged the Lead Bank to look into the matter as this issue was raised around two years back in the DCC and no tangible development has taken place till date.
The DC expressed unhappiness at the low level of attendance of banks’ branch managers at the DCC Meeting. He also discussed about the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) under which all the government payments pertaining to poverty alleviation and social welfare schemes will be credited to the beneficiaries bank accounts through electronic mode. In this regard the DC identified Central Bank of India to act as the Lead Bank for West Sikkim under the “One District-Many Banks-One Leader Bank” model.
AGM and the Lead District Officer (LDO) from RBI, Gangtok, Anil Kumar Yadav in response informed that two new branches of Sikkim State Co-operative Bank Ltd (SISCO Bank) will be opened in West Sikkim at Hee Gaon and Sombaria during this month. He added that at present there are 11 bank branches in the district and with the addition of two new branches the banking network will increase to 13 in West Sikkim.
Mr Yadav urged the bankers to dispose off the proposals and loan applications of the beneficiaies in reasonable period of time as delay in disposal and sanction/disbursement of loan would amount to lapses committed by bank employees which would attract disciplinary action by their banks as per RBI instructions.
He also apprised the house about the RBI’s revised Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme for the benefit of the farmers in the State. He informed that the revised Scheme aims at providing adequate and timely credit support from the banking system under a single window to the farmers for their cultivation and other needs such as to meet the short term credit requirements for cultivation of crops; post harvest expenses; produce marketing loan; consumption requirements of farmer household; working capital for maintenance of farm assets and activities allied to agriculture, like dairy animals, inland fishery etc and also investment credit for agriculture and allied activities like pump sets, dairy animals etc. Under the Scheme the implementing banks will have the discretion to adopt the same to suit institution and location specific requirements.
It was also informed by Mr Yadav that as per RBI’s recent directions henceforth, the banks will not be permitted to charge foreclosure charges/pre-payment penalities on home  loans on floating rate basis.
The meeting also deliberated upon other agenda items pertaining to PMEGP, SGSY, SJSRY, Financial Inclusion programme in West Sikkim etc. The NABARD representative informed the house about different subsidies for Sikkim during 2012-13 amount to Rs. 1.68 crore for the development of dairy, piggery and poultry sector in the State.
The DCC meetings are held on a quarterly basis in each district of the State to review the achievement of the Annual Credit Plan (ACP) targets by different banks located in each distict. District Collector is the Chairman of these meetings and the Lead Banks convene the DCC meetings with representatives from RBI, NABARD, SRDA, DIC, SKVIB, KVIC and other line departments of the State Government as members.