Thiruvananthapuram District-level bankers told to address manpower shortage

Banks in Thiruvananthapuram district have been asked to address the issue of manpower shortage in order to improve the quality of customer service.

They should also look at opening more branches in unbanked areas, A Sampath, Member of Parliament, said while inaugurating the district-level review committee meeting convened here by Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), lead bank.

S Karthikeyan, sub-collector, who chaired the meeting, urged the bankers to consider petitions received at the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme on priority basis. He pointed out that not all bank-linked Akshaya e-kiosks have started dispensing cash yet and asked bankers to look into the matter.

N Saiprasad, Chief Regional Manager, IOB, welcomed the gathering. Sampath MP released the district credit plan for 2015-16 which envisages a credit outlay of ₹9,139 crore.

Of this, ₹4,074 crore is for agriculture; ₹1,471 crore for industries; and ₹3,593 crore for the service sector, including housing and education.

Total bank deposits in the district stood at ₹ 50,822 crore and total advances, ₹35,394 crore as on December 31, 2014.

The credit-deposit ratio has improved from 66 per cent (March 2014) to 70 per cent. NRI deposits stood at ₹11,420 crores (22 per cent of total deposits).

Under the district credit plan for the current year, financial institutions have disbursed ₹5,058 crore under the three major sectors of priority sector against the annual target of ₹8,800 crore as on December 31, 2014.

Among those who spoke on the occasion included V Raveendran, Assistant General Manager, RBI; H Manoj, Assistant General Manager, Nabard; and KN Balakumaran, lead district manager.