Dehradun: The Uttarakhand government has asked the public sector banks to give priority to agriculture and self-employment activities in rural areas while lending loans.
The state’s finance secretary Dilip Javalkar held talks with the bankers concerned at the review meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee on the premises of the state secretariat on Tuesday.
At the meeting, the secretary Javalkar told the bankers that the performance of public sector banks in providing loans for agriculture and self-employment activities in rural areas is very unsatisfactory as compared to private sector banks. He made it clear to them that this is not acceptable. He gave clear instructions to public sector bankers to provide maximum loans to financially empower the rural areas and strengthen their livelihood.
He instructed all the bankers to develop proper coordination with various departments to identify the beneficiaries and then, set the target for providing benefits to the identified beneficiaries. He underlined the need for strict monitoring to achieve the target.
He also directed to work out micro-plans to enhance the progress of such districts in which the CD ratio is not satisfactory. He also said that the districts concerned should review it thoroughly.
The overall credit deposit ratio (CD ratio) of the state stood at 53.26 per cent from July to September 2024 as against 54 per cent in the previous quarter, according to a press release. The release added that the credit deposit ratio of private banks stood at 84.57 per cent in the quarter, while that of nationalized banks was 42.33 per cent. Important suggestions were made by RBI, NABARD, and bankers regarding increase in the credit deposit ratio.
With an aim to increase the credit deposit ratio in the state, the animal husbandry and dairy department, ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Government of India has organized a nationwide AHDF KCC campaign from 15 September 2024 to 31 March 2025. Under the campaign, Uttarakhand has been given the target of opening 5000 KCC accounts. The government expects bankers to provide maximum loans during the campaign.
As per the release, the credit deposit ratio of the state can be increased by providing bank loan facilities to various industrial units/projects, the investors/industrialists identified by the Department of Industries in the Global Investor Summit 2023.
Besides the big-ticket size loans in agriculture and MSME sector, focus should be also given on a greater number of small ticket size loans. The micro and small units set up in the state should also be provided loans.
At the meeting, prominent among those who were present included AGM RBI Dheeraj Kumar Arora, AGM SLBC Rajeev Pant, Assistant General Manager NABARD Shobhna Singh, and Joint Director Tourism S.S. Samant.
