Animal and fish resources minister Giriraj Singh and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar light the lamp at the meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Neshat Ahmad

Patna, Nov. 17: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today directed senior deputy collectors (banking) to organise a janata darbar every Friday and listen to people’s complaints related to the banking sector.

Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, issued the directive at a meeting of the deputy collectors. The meeting was held a day ahead of the state-level bankers’ meet.

The state government had deputed a senior deputy collector (banking) in each of the districts around four months ago. Their duty was to work in co-operation with the banks in their respective districts and help achieve targets set by the state government for the (banking) sector.

“I have also directed the district officials to ensure that meetings of district-level co-ordination committees and block-level co-ordination panels are held at regular intervals,” Modi told journalists after the meeting.

He said the department had already prepared a roster in which dates of meetings for all the districts have been fixed. “The dates of block-level meetings have to be finalised by senior deputy collectors,” he added.

According to rules, four meetings of district-level and block-level committees must be held every year. Modi also told district officials to submit a detailed report about the performance of banks falling under their jurisdiction on a monthly basis. A format for report submission has also been developed for this purpose and the officials are being equipped with computers for that and other related work.

“The new system would equip us with a channel using which we would be able to keep tabs on the performance of banks on a regular basis. At present, we are dependent on banks for getting such reports, which are generally submitted in the state-level bankers’ meet,” Modi said. He added that tomorrow’s meeting would focus on the agriculture sector. “Distribution of Kisan credit cards and reaching out to 2,000-strong habitations through banking correspondents are the two main issues to be reviewed during the meeting.”

In another meeting, Modi, who also holds the commercial taxes portfolio, reviewed the position of tax collection by the department.