Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has appealed to the banks to cooperate in cooperative village farming being developed by the State Government. Under the livelihood Mission, loan is being given at the rate of 7 per cent but the agriculture sector is by and large ignored. As part of the efforts to revive the self help groups (SHGs), especially women SHGs, he asked if the banks could give capital to them as grant.
He further said that currently one or two banks have been actively working on it but remaining are sitting idle. If all banks come forward then we can achieve our desired goal. With this you can also achieve your start-up goal. As per the target 10000 women will be made entrepreneur in next three years. If you club this with Veer Chandra Singh Garhwal yojna then it would boost the morale of women of the state. These views were expressed by the chief minister while addressing in the 56th State level Bankers Committee meeting held at Chief Minister Residence here in Dehradun on Wednesday.
CM appealed RBI officials to prepare a scheme to reschedule loans without increasing burden on the loan payer as people are facing difficulties to repay their loans after 2013 deluge. Chief Minister directed Additional Chief Secretary S. Ramaswami to send proposal on behalf of State Government in following SlBS meeting regarding expectations of State Government from Banks.
Agriculture and livelihood sector might be improved sufficiently if banks prepare working plan based on focus paper released by NABARD recently. We are moving forward cluster based agronomy.
This year, State government is working on a plan to develop cluster farming through setting up Cooperative Company based on farmer’s share holding. Bank might full fill the requirement of initial capital investment in this regard. Marginal and small farmers would be benefitted if banks provide loans on discount rates here like loans facility of 7 % interest rate under livelihood Mission. Banks have not taken expected initiatives in context with livelihood Mission yet. Banks must contribute effectively in this context. Banks would also get help to improve their loan-deposit ratio if Cooperative Village Farming scheme proves to be successful. How banks can become partners in livelihood Mission should be studied. Banks need to be proactive for the purpose..
Congratulating SBI for distributing loans to Self Help Groups at large scale CM directed to Secretary Finance to prepare grant based working plan to re-active SHGs through the help of banks. If 50 percent Women SHGs become active, a big change might be expected in rural economy. Banks can use their CSR fund for the purpose. Banks should asses their contribution in inclusive growth, CM added.
State Government has started promotion scheme to encourage self employment and women entrepreneurs. Possibilities should be studied to link it with MUDRA scheme. Government has set target to prepare 10 thousand women entrepreneurs within three years. We need to focus on Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Scheme. Rural Tourism Up-gradation Scheme and Home Stay scheme should be prioritised in this regard. Banks might play significant role in Agriculture, Dairy and fibres sector promotion. Youths and women are being trained through Hunar like schemes. Banks should assist these trainees to start commercial activities. Industries in Uttarakhand are facing many challenges on account of ending of various discounts. Still State Government is making every possible effort to assist and promote industries in the State. We would try to ensure 24 hours electricity supply, single window system, skill labour availability. Banks should prepare such plan which might help to reduce problems being faced by industries set up earlier. How State Government can help for the purpose it should be suggested, Chief Minister informed.
All the banks have achieved target to distribute loans of `9,540 crore against `14,524 crore till December 2015 under the Annual loan Scheme during year 2015-16, which is 66 per cent of target. loan-Deposit ratio of State is 58 per cent. To promote the small and medium industries under the Pradhanmantri Mudra scheme `765.36 crore against the target of `1728.39 crore loans to 97,853 persons have been distributed by banks. ADHAR cards of 6,72,355 people have been linked with their bank accounts by banks till date. Major Banks have organised Self Help Groups linkage programmes according to expectations of Chief Minster, it was informed during the meeting.