Stressing on banks playing as an associate of the State Government in engineering positive changes in the life of the society, particularly in the rural areas where development has still remained a far cry, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said if they joined hands things in the rural areas would be transformed developmentally.
He asked all to ensure that the benefits of micro finance would reach the rural areas. “To achieve this, we must strengthen the self -help groups (SHG), primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) and the like,” he said. CM Rawat was addressing the State credit seminar, organised by NABARD in Dehradun on Tuesday.
“The major banks and their subsidiaries must firm up clear policies to pump life in agriculture, micro industries and tourism. To ensure that the bank benefit would reach out to the destitute/disadvantaged sections of the society, the banks must play pro-active roles and should act with more sensitivity than they are displaying now,” he said.
Rawat said that Uttarakhand is the first State in the country which is working on the water bank. The whole country will be benefited from storing water in the Himalayan region, he said. “I am sure Uttarakhand is all set to become a model State in the field of water storage,” he affirmed.
Speaking volume of NABARD’s proposed state credit plan for the year 2016-17, CM Rawat said that this would help the State government reap benefits too. “The banks would be in a position to release loans without much glitch,” he said.
CM further said that the State government is doing everything to provide social security to the unprivileged groups under various pension schemes. Agriculture, animal husbandry and handicraft are being promoted to revive rural economy, he said, adding that the State Government is giving bonus to boost cultivation of local produces.
“However, to help things sustain, we will have to develop a supportive mechanism and for this, the bank have an active role to play by way of rightly financing them,” he said.
Dwelling on the transformational role played by SHGs, CM said they are instrumental in rural transformation. “Uttarakhand’s GDP is better than national average. Things are better than even neighbouring Himachal Pradesh too. But the irony of the achievement is that a large chunk of people are yet to reap benefit of the fast progressing economy. They must be integrated into the development circiut,” he said.
The Secretary Finance, Amit Negi was directed to prepare a comprehensive plan to empower SHGs and PACS in the field of micro-finance. The loan process should be simplified by the banks, CM stressed. Negi was also directed to constitute a committee to facilitate this. The representatives of Banks, RBI, cooperatives and farmers groups should be included in the committee, CM said.
NABARD chief MD CP Mohan informed that NABARD has prepared the district -specific feasibility reports containing loan scheme on annual basis. Its main purpose is to prepare a policy for tapping loan feasibility by creating district and block wise timely basis assessments, he said. State Focus Paper 2016-17 has been presented by integrating loan schemes containing feasibility, he said, adding that the loan feasibility of Rs 16525 crore has been assessed for Uttarakhand and it is 12 percent more than the figure from the last year.
Giving the breakups of the loan feasibility, he said Rs 8710.60 crore is for agriculture while Rs5273.32 crore for MSME, Rs1647.59 for housing, Rs303.12 crore for social infrastructure, Rs387.48 crore for education sector, Rs25.35 crore for export sector, Rs8.13 crore for renewable energy and Rs170.23 crore for others. “They have been assessed,” he said.
later, CM felicitated the self- help groups and bank branches which have performed well. He also released the State Focus Paper on the occasion.
Among those present were the principal secretary Manisha Panwar, secretaries Amit Negi and Shailesh Bagholi aside from the representatives of RBI, SBI and other banks.