Question : Shortage of Bank Branches

(a) whether the Government is unaware of the acute shortage of bank branches in the rural areas throughout the country including the State of Haryana;

(b) if so, the details thereof including the number of new bank branches proposed to be opened by the Government during the current year and the next three years, State/District-wise including Haryana;

(c) whether the Government proposes to open bank branches in the villages throughout the country with a population of more than five thousand;

(d) if so, the details thereof and the time by which it is likely to be opened; and

(e) the details of new bank branches opened throughout the country during each of the last five years, State/District-wise including Haryana?

The Finance Minister

(a) to (d) As on 31.3.2018 there are 51,436 rural branches in the country, out of which 1646 are in the state of Haryana.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted general permission to Domestic Scheduled Commercial banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks), to open banking outlets at any place in the country, without seeking prior approval of RBI in each case, subject to at least 25% of the total number of banking outlets [a fixed point service delivery unit, manned either by bank’s staff or its Business Correspondent (BC)] opened during a financial year in unbanked rural centres.
To cover rural areas all across the country, 1.59 lakh Sub Service Areas (SSAs) have were created, where each SSA comprises of 1,000 to 1,500 households (approx. 4000 to 5000 population). Out of these SSA, 0.33 lakh rural SSAs are covered through bank branches and 1.26 lakh rural SSAs are covered though fixed location BC.
Further, an exercise based upon the Geographical Information System (GIS), a mapping exercise was undertaken by National Informatics Centre (NIC) to locate inhabited villages which are not having banking facility within a distance of 5 km. Out of 8622 identified locations, 7363 locations have been covered through deployment of BCs.
In addition to above, the requirement of new banking outlets as received from time to time are also discussed in meetings of the concerned District Level Consultative Committee (DLCC)/ State Level Banker’s Committee (SLBC) and based on the recommendations made, new outlets are opened by different banks.
(e) The details of new bank branches opened throughout the country during each of the last five years, State/UT-wise including Haryana are as per Annexure.
********