In an attempt to empower women at the village level the Samajwadi party Government has declared loan at 3 per cent rate for women in rural areas from the state-run Co-operative bank so that they can start their small business.
“Under the Mahila Gramin Samridhi Yojana the Uttar Pradesh Co-operative Rural Development Bank in collaboration with National Backward Class Finance Development Corporation (of Rashtriya Pichda Varg Vitt Vikas Nigam) will extend loan to rural women at 3 per cent interest rate,” Cooperatives minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said here on Monday.
A woman could get a maximum loan up to Rs1 lakh. The Government announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced revival of the co-operative banks. During his maiden visit to his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi he had declared that Union Government has decided to pump in over Rs 1200 crore to revive sick banks.
Yadav however narrated how Samajwadi Party had turned the tide for this co-operative bank which was in the red during Mayawati’s regime. “This is a fact that during last BSP regime the cooperative bank was on the verge of closure. The situation was so bad that even the employees were not getting salaries. Our government pumped in Rs 1,650
crore and the bank that had incurred a loss of Rs 204 crores in last fiscal is now in a profit of Rs 88 crore”, the minister said. Minister chaired the meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Co-operative Rural Development Bank here on Monday and decided that bank should extend help to the needy particularly women.
“If we can empower women, we can strengthen a family at the village level. This in turn will help in improving the rural economy,” the minister said.
Talking about the achievements of the Akhilesh Yadav government he said that this was the only government in the country that had fulfilled all the promises made during election campaign. “Ours is the government that work for youth, farmers, women and religious minority,” he said.
When asked about law and order situation in the state he said it was better than other neighbouring states. In UP at least cases are lodged. In many states police do not register cases, he said and added a canard is being spread against the Samajwadi Party government by opposition parties to malign our image. “The opposition will not succeed in its nefarious campaign,” he said.