By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal requested Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur to increase the presence of banks in the rural areas especially in the tea garden areas for larger financial inclusion in the state. Holding a meeting with the Union Minister at his office chamber in Janata Bhawan here today, Chief Minister Sonowal pointed out that setting up of bank branches in the remote areas especially in tea garden areas besides empowering the rural populace financially will lead to greater financial inclusion. Union Minister Thakur assured the Chief Minister to look into it and maintained that besides bank branches, he would take personal interests in deploying bank correspondents and dak sevak in the far-flung areas of the state to bring the uncovered section of the people within ambit of banking services. Union Minister Thakur also said that Assam is very much in the priority list of the Central government, as the Finance Ministry has enlisted a sequel of incentives for the state. With regard to Chief Minister Sonowal’s request, the Union Minister said that the Centre is working whole-heartedly to bring in paradigm shift in the industrial landscape of the North East under North East Industrial Development Scheme 2017. Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Pijush Hazarika, Chief Minister’s Media and Legal Adviser Hrishikesh Goswami and Santanu Bharali, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya were present at the meeting.