Patna, Dec. 20: Finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui has blamed commercial banks for not fulfilling their promise to open new branches and ATMs in Bihar.

"The lack of banking facility in Bihar has made life of residents even more difficult post demonetisation," Siddiqui said at the state bankers' meet today. He directed regional commissioners and district magistrates to identify banks that have not met their target in giving credit to farming sectors like poultry, fisheries and dairy so that government would not keep its funds in such banks.

The most important point Siddiqui made was that 35 commercial banks were supposed to open 1,340 new branches in Bihar this year. But till December 15, only 70 had been opened. Similarly, rural banks that are supervised by commercial banks were supposed to open 300 new branches but just 17 came up. Several commercial lead banks, given the target of opening over 80 new branches, did not open a single new branch in the state or their score was in single digits. Private banks fared the worst.

Talking to The Telegraph, the minister pointed towards poor bank coverage in Bihar. "Here in Bihar there is one branch for an average population of 20,000," Siddiqui said. "The national average is around 11,000. There are several blocks and villages that do not have a single branch. Repeated efforts to speed up opening of new branches in the state has not borne desired results even after taking the issue up with the Union government."

He said low banking cover has resulted in rural reside-nts having to walk miles to either draw or exchange money. He chided banks for not funding dairy, poultry and fishery proposals adequately and stressed that they were vital for development of farmers and additional income. He also asked banks to speed up opening of new ATMs.

The complaint against bankers ignoring Bihar has been going on for a long period. Even when the NDA was in power in the state, then Union finance minister P Chidambaram had met top bankers in Patna and asked them to raise credit for Bihar. But commercial banks seem reluctant to open new branches in the state and declared several rural areas as unviable.