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Our Bureau

United Bank of India also signs deal

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Kolkata Jan. 31 The West Bengal State Cooperative Bank (WBSCB) has signed an MoU with the West Bengal Government for providing housing loans to the State Government employees. United Bank of India is the other bank, which too has signed a similar MoU. However, the State Government order in this regard is still to be issued.

Giving this information here on Wednesday, Mr Samir Ghosh, Chairman of WBSCB, said his bank, through its wide network, would be able to meet the housing loan requirements of the large number of the State Government employees. "We'll charge very competitive rates of interest on the loans", Mr Ghosh said, pointing out that the State Government would provide the guarantees.

It might be noted that earlier the West Bengal Government had similar arrangement with State Bank of India for several years but the arrangement fell through after SBI insisted on hiking the rates of interest.

For weaker sections

Pursuing its goal to reach banking services to the weaker sections within the city as well as to mobilise low-cost deposits, WBSCB, according to its Chairman, has initiated several steps.

First, it has started opening no-frills accounts. A beginning has been made with 450 slum-dwellers in the city's Belgachia area having opened accounts with the bank's Shyambazar branch.

Targets

"Our next target will be the areas under our Behala branch", he said. The bank's bid to promote self-help groups (SHGs) within the city too yielded results. The move, initiated about a year ago, already succeeded in enrolling the support of 356 SHGs with a total deposits of Rs 27.8 lakh. "Our target is to cover 500 SHGs by March 2007", he added.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government has cleared the dues of two of its undertakings, namely West Bengal Handloom & Powerloom Development Corporation Ltd (WBHPDCL) and West Bengal Cooperative Spinning Mills Ltd to WBSCB, amounting to Rs 6.8 crore - about Rs four crore on account of the spinning mill and the balance Rs 2.8 crore on account of WBHPDCL.

More Stories on : Housing Finance | Human Resources | Co-operatives | West Bengal

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