Following the directions of Chief Minister Naveen Patniak to improve the liquidity levels of the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs), Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan on Thursday reviewed the progress in this regard at a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat.
Cooperation Department Principal Secretary Manoj Ahuja outlined the issues. The Development Commissioner advised the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officers present at the meeting to supply more currency notes to the DCCBs.
It was decided that the RBI would supply around Rs 65 crore to 70 crore worth of notes to the DCCBs on a daily basis to meet the requirement of farmers with regard to crop loan, paddy procurement proceeds and crop insurance claim,
Balakrishnan further wanted constitution of a Whatsapp group among senior officers from RBI, SBI, State Cooperative Bank, Principal Secretary Cooperation and Director, Institutional Finance for instant transfer of the messages and their resolution. This would provide real time monitoring of the ground-level situation about availability of currency in the banks. It was further decided that the situation would be reviewed at the level of the Development Commissioner on a day-to-day basis.
It was briefed that the DCCBs in Odisha advance about 65 per cent of the crop loans against the national average of 16 per cent. This year, a target has been fixed to advance Rs 5,000 crore of crop loans to farmers during the current Rabi season. In addition, Rs 1,776 crore has been disbursed through cooperative banks to farmers towards insurance claim of the Kharif crop. Besides, around Rs 100 crore is being disbursed daily to farmers’ accounts towards paddy procurement proceeds.
It was expected that supply of Rs 65 crore to Rs 70 crore per day to the DCCBs would cater to the immediate needs of the farmers
The issues relating to deposit of money in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts also figured at the meeting. Some accounts opened under the PMJDY were found not fully KYC-compliant, for which more than Rs 50,000 could not be deposited in these accounts. The farmers who are to get more than Rs 50,000 towards the cost of their paddy faced this problem. It was decided at the meeting that the Aadhaar cards issued to the farmers would be used as the KYC. The farmers having their Aadhaar cards would produce it in the banks and the banks would make the accounts KYC-compliant.
It may be pertinent here to mention that as of now, around 93 per cent of the adult people of Odisha have been supplied their Aadhaar numbers. Permanent Aadhaar registration centres have been functionalised at the tehsil level. Presently, an Aadhaar registration campaign is also on in all districts. The farmers not having Aadhaar numbers can get themselves registered in the nearest camp or registration centre.