Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that the Government is committed to ensure access to banking facilities to downtrodden and poor people living in small towns and villages in the country. He said this after launching 100 new branches of Federal Bank at a function in New Delhi. Mr Mukherjee said, this is the endeavour of the government to ensure cost-effective and timely banking services to such people. He said, promotion of financial institutions is a key priority of the Government to achieve the objective of inclusive growth in the country. The Minister said that his Ministry has a proposal to create banking facilities for small villages with less than 1000 population. He informed that more than 63,000 villages with less than 2000 population have been provided banking facilities out of the total targeted 74000 villages across the country.