Chief Minister Hemant Soren today said that the problem of people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community not getting loans has been going on since the time of undivided Bihar. “There should be such a system so that the people of Scheduled Tribes can move forward in business and other fields. They have land, but despite having land, they are not able to use it to make themselves self-sufficient. There are complaints that they are unable to get loans from the bank,” said the CM chairing a meeting organised regarding providing loans by banks to persons belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community.
He said, “That's the reason, today this meeting is being organized. Twenty eight per cent of the people belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community are in this State. If the Scheduled Caste community is included, then it will go up to 40 per cent. In such a situation, there should be a collective effort of all of us in the direction of taking them forward. If the bank takes away the land of the people of the tribal community, then their very existence will be snatched away. We have to work keeping their existence safe.”
The CM said that the bank management can come up with a solution out of the box. “Banks should consider keeping the movable and immovable property built on the land as collateral instead of paying attention to the land, then the problem can be solved to a great extent. Apart from this, there is a need for banks to increase the limits of collateral free loans, so that tribal residents can easily get loans for education, housing, business and industry.
If the people of this community do not move forward, then how will the State progress on the path of development. Bank management should consider this. Keep these things in the meeting of the Bank Management Board. The government will provide full cooperation to the bank management. We need to work in coordination, so that all round development of this community can be ensured,” he said.
Minister Champai Soren, MLA Prof. Stephen Marandi, Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Rajiv Arun Ekka, Secretary to Chief Minister Vinay Kumar Choubey, Finance Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh, Welfare Secretary KK Soan and General Managers and Regional Managers of various banks were present.