Congratulating the banks in the country for helping the Government of India save Rs 15,000 crore as annual subsidy outgo on cooking gas through the DBTl scheme, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has urged State Bank of India (SBI) employees to extend the same cooperation to the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana.
Pradhan was inaugurating the Ninth Triennial General Council of SBI Staff Association’s Bhubaneswar Circle here on Sunday. Stressing the need to support the small entrepreneurs in the country through the MUDRA model, Pradhan said banks must play yet another major role to help the Indian economy prosper.
Pradhan inaugurated the conclave attended by over 9,000 members of all the 822 SBI branches of the Bhubaneswar Circle as Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha could not turn up for the occasion as he is accompanying Prime Minister Modi in the US.
Attending the function as a guest of honour, Odisha Cooperation and Excise Minister Damodar Rout asked the banks to ensure that agriculture also gets importance at par with industry so as to prevent the ‘Social Contrast’ invading the country.
Taking a jibe at banks’ focus on car loans and housing loans, Rout wondered why the banks are not coming out with schemes for potato loans and onion loans to drive home his point that banks now must give adequate loans to farmers.
The senior BJD leader created a flutter when he lavishly praised “Odia BJP Minister” Pradhan for doing exceedingly well at the Centre.
While general secretary of All India SBI Staff Federation MV Murali delivered the keynote address, its secretary SK Bandlish, Bhubaneswar CGM B Venugopal Reddy and Mumbai CGM Debashis Sarkar addressed the inaugural session which was presided over by Bhubaneswar SBI Staff Association president SP Behera.