Dimapur: Nagaland governor P.B. Acharya has written to five different banks operating in Nagaland to open branches in "strategic rural areas" to enable people to avail banking facilities and government welfare programmes.

Acharya, in a recent letter addressed to the managing directors and CEOs of Nagaland Rural Bank, Nagaland State Co-operative Bank Ltd, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and United Bank of India, said he had met officials of several banks and had urged them to open new branches in all the districts of Nagaland.

He said there were "hardly any branches" in other districts of the state apart from Kohima and Dimapur.

"People in the rural areas are unaware of the banking facilities and the schemes provided by the government through banks," he said.

Earlier this year, Acharya had met 20 bank representatives at the Raj Bhavan in Kohima. So far, only five of them have considered the governor's proposal to open branches in the other districts of Nagaland.