Chief Minister Raghubar Das has asked banks operating in the State to have trust in the poor and lend them adequately in order to help the Government achieve their target in poverty alleviation in next four years.
launching the web portal of SlBC (Jharkhand) dedicated to education loan for SC/ST/OBC students during 59th quarterly meeting of SlBC on Friday, Das also directed them to take discussions of such meetings to preparation of a clear roadmap and execution level.
“We will have to keep trust in our own people. Rural women in ‘Sakhi Mandals’ working for various welfare projects and development plans for villages have repeatedly proved before us in recent past that just one meagre financial and technical push to them could result in phenomenal change in lives of them and around. So, banks will have to invest in them, no matter under which running welfare plan it may fall into. Tribal women are not meant to be restricted to poultry and animal husbandry. We have to take them to next level through proper banking facilities,” said Das.
Das, who thanked banks for handling adverse cash crunch situations after demonetisation on November 9 last year and helping the State in implementing Cashless Jharkhand mission successfully, also expressed displeasure over banks’ work culture of not taking pro-people programmes as seriously as required.
He said that extremely important plans like RuPay card distribution to loan disbursement under Mudra Yojna, Stand Up India and likewise were lagging far behind targets, which needed to be speed up at the earliest.
“Banks should improve their work culture and dispose matters related with people’s interest promptly. Out of 38 lakh farmers in the State, only 13 lakh Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) have been distributed, which is an area of concern. Applications for bank accounts of ‘Sakhi Mandals’ have been lying pending which must be opened by end of this month through organising camps,” directed the CM.
Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner Amit Khare, secretaries of couple of departments, RBI and NABARD officials and SlBC member representatives other than hundreds of Sakhi Mandal representatives were also present on the occasion.
The CM was overwhelmed to come across success story of one Barkha Rani Kachchap, who shared her experience in areas near Jonha and surrounding villages as Banking Sakhi Correspondent. Kachchap said that she had earned fame in those areas as ‘Bank Wali Didi’, as she took banking services to those who never knew that any banking transaction was ever possible without visiting a bank branch. Kachchap also expressed her pleasure of having blessed by dozens of senior citizen ladies whom she used to deliver their pension at doorsteps.
“These are the stories we must learn from. This is why I say that we need to invest our own people. We are the State of perhaps the most innocent rural populace, who are prone to return the loan of bank on time. Data show that loans given to small entrepreneurs have return rate of over 90 percent. But loan success rate to big businesses have remained under 80 percent. This clearly indicates that we will have to finance small lenders,” said Das.