To give further impetus to the much-needed agriculture diversification programme in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday asked the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to provide finance to allied sectors such as dairy and beekeeping on the interest at par with agriculture.
Badal also demanded to immediately slash the rate of interest on the NABARD’s refinance from 4.5 to 2.5% to boost the rural economy. “NABARD has been earlier providing refinance at 2.5% which had been now increased to 4.5 per cent,” said Badal while impressing upon the NABARD to immediately reduce it to 2.5 per cent while delivering his address on NABARD’s 32nd foundation.
“By reduction, farmers could be provided loans at cheaper rate, which would also make the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) financially viable and enable the State Government in
converting PACS into Multi-purpose Cooperative societies by adding farmer friendly services,” he said.
He pleaded for providing finance to allied sectors like dairy, piggery, beekeeping, goatery on interest at par with agriculture in Punjab by the NABARD. Badal also urged the NABARD to immediately do away with the condition of capping of Rs30 lakh for house loan and Rs1 lakh for repair, renovation or enhancement.
He asked the NABARD to work out a scheme to arrest the growing trend of heavy migration of population from rural to urban area, by giving the rural economy a big boost.
Appreciating NABARD for providing concessional funds under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for upgrading rural infrastructure in the State, Badal revealed that an amount of Rs495 crore has been earmarked for the current fiscal and demanded the amount to be at least doubled to Rs1,000 crore.