Aizawl: The Mizoram government on Monday signed an agreement with eight banks to introduce the ‘One Department, One Bank’ (ODOB) system, an initiative aimed at strengthening financial oversight, enhancing transparency and improving the management of public funds.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Lalduhoma and his Adviser for Finance and Planning, TBC Lalvenchhunga, at the Chief Minister’s Conference Hall.
The system will initially be implemented across eight government departments, with plans to gradually bring more departments under the framework, officials said.
Lalduhoma, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said repeated observations in Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reports had pointed to substantial government funds being kept in the accounts of Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) without the Finance Department being adequately informed.
He said the Finance Department sometimes faces difficulties in obtaining complete information about such funds when seeking details from the concerned authorities.
“To address such difficulties and enable more effective monitoring of government funds, we have decided to implement the ‘One Department, One Bank’ system,” Lalduhoma said.
He described the initiative as a new approach to public financial management and said it would promote greater transparency while allowing the government to monitor and administer its funds more efficiently. He also thanked the participating banks for joining the initiative.
The eight participating banks are State Bank of India, Mizoram Cooperative Apex Bank, Mizoram Rural Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank.
The specific mapping of the eight departments to the respective banks has not yet been finalised and is expected to be completed soon.
The departments initially covered under the initiative are Public Works, Public Health Engineering, Power and Electricity, General Administration, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Rural Development and Administration, Health and Family Welfare, and Institutional Finance and State Lottery.
The General Administration Department’s coverage will extend to all Deputy Commissioners.
During the event, Lalduhoma also highlighted Mizoram’s relatively low credit-deposit (CD) ratio, which remains below the national average. The state recorded a CD ratio of 55.83% in 2025-26, compared with 73.52% in Assam, 61.1% in Nagaland and 61% in Tripura.
The Chief Minister said the state aims to raise Mizoram’s CD ratio to at least 67% by 2028-29 and urged banks to increase lending in the state to help achieve the target.
Officials added that schemes already operating under specific standard operating procedures for fund flow and management may be excluded from the ODOB framework where integrating them into the new system is not practical.