Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Monday urged banks to expedite the implementation of all priority sector lending schemes and particularly, to extend education loans to the students from the poorer sections of the society.

The minister convened a Special State Level Bankers’ Committee Meeting in which he urged the banks to ensure banking solutions in unbanked remote areas, particularly forested and tribal habitations.

For the first time, consultation was held and suggestions were sought from bankers for the upcoming budget FY 2022-23 of the State government, says a press release.

The minister also urged all bankers to ensure that the Tamil language is used in all public interfaces such as ATMs and bank forms. He also stressed the need for bank officials who are deployed in frontline desks and helpline desks in banks to be conversant in Tamil.

The minister reviewed the banks on the progress made in the implementation of various Government schemes.

The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary N Muruganandam; MD & CEO of Indian Overseas Bank & Chairman, SLBC, Tamil Nadu Partha Prathim Sengupta; Regional Director of Reserve Bank of India (Chennai) SMN Swamy; Expenditure Secretary V Arun Roy and senior officials from the Finance Department and senior officials from all major banks, the release said.