Drawing inference from the last Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) meeting, Chief Minister Raghubar Das has blamed banks for their indifference in disbursing education loan to needy tribal youths.
Addressing all the bankers of the State during the 54th State level Bankers’ Committee (SlBC) on Wednesday, the Chief Minister saw the much talked land related provisions not as a hindrance.
“Banks have to play an important role in the economy of the State. I can share your worries but you also need to feel the pain of the poorest of the poor who are the tribals. We are seeing dissatisfactory progress made in distributing education loan to tribal youths, perhaps fearing to the CNT and SPT Acts provisions. The matter also came for discussion in the TAC meeting. When there is no provision for seeking guarantee against education loan up to Rs 4 lakh, I failed to understand why the figure is so poor,” said the CM.
He also went on suggesting the banks to hit to the publicity mode and spread awareness about education loan for tribals through pamphlets, advertisements and other means of communication. The CM called for clear intension for that and steps in that direction necessary to enhance credibility of the banks among masses.
Though the bank officials present there were unable to put up latest figures about the loan given to tribal students, but admitted about the dismal show on that front. “We have given education loan to tribal youths but we agree that it has not been satisfactory. The SlBC can assure you of taking sincere strides in that direction. Special drives and camps would be organised in coming months and the education loan to tribal youths would be distributed in mission mode,” replied MK Gupta, SlBC convener and General Manager of BOI.
The land regulations meant for scheduled areas prohibit fortification of tribal land even by banks which often play a deterrent for sanctioning institutional loans to the largely cash-stripped community. However, Government provisions for facilitating education loans to needy waive the perquisite bank guarantee.
The CM, at the same time, also underlined the role of the bankers in raising sources of income for poor villagers. “The Government has schemes such as Mudra loan, loans for SHGs, for skill development etc in which the banks have special roles to play. You should deliver on those fronts. All the social security schemes are to be run through banks but we have less number of bank branches in villages. These are making things difficult for the Government to deliver,” said the CM.
On the occasion, he also reiterated that the State is going to see for the first time a dedicated budget for agriculture sector during the upcoming financial year 2016-17 which, he said, would plan specifically for majority of population living in villages. Plans dedicated to water conservation, irrigation facilities and farm loans would get preference in the agriculture budget.