Bhubaneswar, Aug. 18: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today urged the commercial banks to ensure that they cover every corner of the state either through regular branches or through their business correspondents by the end of this year.

Addressing state-level bankers’ committee, Naveen urged banks to initiate steps to remove inter-regional inequalities in credit disbursement. “The commercial banks operating in Orissa should step up their lending,” Naveen said.

He said the state government had put in place a policy framework under which commercial banks could handle banking business and deposits of state public sector undertakings and autonomous societies only if they met the minimum conditions.

“We have initiated this policy not to exclude any bank but only to nudge those which have been under-performing in terms of their mandated obligations,” he said.

Naveen said by the end of this financial year, every commercial bank operating in the state would achieve minimum expectations in this regard. Stating that the banks should lay more emphasis on agriculture related activities, the chief minister said: “The picture is more disturbing with regard to the achievement under the agriculture sector. Lending by public sector banks to the sector is only 20 per cent of the target. Performance of a large number of public sector banks in terms of their overall performance under the annual credit plan, more specifically to the agriculture sector, can hardly be reckoned as satisfactory.”