Hyderabad, March 25: With just a week left for closure of the financial year, the role of banks in extending loans to the underprivileged and backward sections of society leaves a lot to be desired.
Most of the banks fall short of the target. In case of SC Service Cooperative Society, the banks are still 54 per cent behind the financial target. As against the financial target of Rs. 10.70 crore, only Rs. 10.27 crore has been disbursed.
The progress report of the Rajiv Yuva Shakthi programme is not encouraging either.
Out of the 164 units sanctioned, only 61 are grounded till date. The same story repeats in schemes of B.C. Action plan, SHG bank linkages, Minorities Finance Corporation and Vikalangula Cooperative Corporation.
District authorities expressed concern at the poor performance of banks and wondered why they were dragging their feet in helping the poor.
At the District Consultative Committee meeting here on Thursday, Hyderabad Collector, Natrajan Gulzar, minced no words in ticking off the banks. “You are not doing a favour. It is an obligation on your part,” he said curtly.
He asked Lead District Manager P. Ramakoteshwar Rao to list out the banks which had done poorly so that the government could be informed. The Collector was upset when Andhra Bank representative Uma Devi said that the bank was going slow in grounding the units as some beneficiaries in Sanathnagar and Shamsheergunj had misappropriated the money. He asked the District Youth Welfare Officer to verify.
Loans within 2 months
The LDM asked the banks to sanction the loan within two months after approving the application. “The district is getting a bad name,” he remarked.
Earlier, Satyanand, Additional Joint Collector, told the banks to ask for a change of unit if they were not convinced about its viability, but once the sanction was given, there should be no delay in grounding the unit. “Most of the persons coming to the weekly grievance programme at the Collectorate are the ones whose units are not grounded,” Mr. Satyanand said.
G. Kishan Reddy (BJP) complained that the banks were taking five to six months in sanctioning the second loan to SHGs even after clearance of the first loan. He demanded the banks to issue loan passbooks to the SHGs instead of giving mere slips.
-Agencies