95 percent of Meghalaya population still without bank accounts

The Reserve Bank of India is trying to cover all the villages under financial inclusion program by providing banking services to the people living in villages. It has also instructed banks take various measures for the implementation of financial inclusion in the villages in which they have to set up branches or through business correspondents they have to provide banking facility to the villages having population of 20,000 people.

Still over 95 percent of households in Meghalaya State do not have a bank account. The Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, who also holds the finance portfolio, told that it is becoming difficult to implement several of the central government’s flagship welfare programs as most of the households do not have a bank account.

He told as most of the population in the state, especially the rural poor does not have access to banking transactions, so it is not possible to implement centrally-sponsored flagship schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and others which are credit linked.

Sangma said, “A total of 95.9 percent households do not indulge in banking transactions. Moreover, the credit-deposit (CD) ratio in the state is very low.”

He informed that he has taken up these issues with union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

He added, “I have highlighted Meghalaya's constraints relating to poor implementation of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government's flagship programs before the finance minister and the central government will look into our problems.”