Bhagalpur, Dec. 22: Officials from various nationalised and rural banks received tips on ways to improve the Self-Help Group-Bank Linkage Prog-ramme (SHG-BLP) in Bha-galpur and Banka districts during a two-day sensitisation programme that concluded today.

Seventeen branch managers and field officers from UCO Bank, five each from Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bihar and Kshetriya Gramin Bank and two from Allahabad Bank participated in the programme held at Central Co-operative Bank here.

The programme was inau-gurated by Aarti Prasad, zonal manager of UCO Bank’s Bhagalpur branch, Dilip Kr Ghosh, the lead district manager of UCO Bank, Arvind Chaudhary, the nodal officer (financial inclusion cell) of Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank, Munger, and B.K. Mishra, the district co-ordinator of State Bank of India.

Ghosh said the bankers should understand the differences between SHGs and Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana and should finance the SHGs on a larger scale.

Mishra urged the bankers to change their mindset about financing groups in terms of communities. He added that they should take up SHG-related projects frequently.