The Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today asked the bankers to issue the input subsidy to farmers without any link to previous dues or adjustments. He said the input subsidy is the capital for next crop as far as famers are concerned and the State Government has substantially increased the input subsidy. He said banks will have to substantially increase the loans for self-employment since the State Government decided to provide self-employment to 6 lakhs youth with Rs.2,000 crs.
The Chief Minister asked the Bankers to step up loans in all sectors particularly for agriculture and allied sectors like dairy, poultry, fisheries, horticulture etc and the LEC card holders (licenced cultivators). He also asked the bankers to give priority to Minorities, Small & Medium Entrepreneurs, Food Processing industry and IKP women. The Chief Minister asked the Bankers to come to the help of Ration Shop dealers for the successful implementation of schemes like “Amma Hastham” etc.
The Chief Minister was speaking as chief guest at the 181st State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting at Hotel Taj Krishna here today. He also asked the bankers to immediately open bank accounts for all farmers so that benefits like input subsidy etc could be transferred to their accounts directly without any delay.
The Chief Minister congratulated the bankers for surpassing the target for the Annual Credit Plan 2012-13 particularly for the Agriculture Sector and said he expects the same this year also”. However he asked the Bankers to set a target for 2013-14 which is considerably more than what has really achieved for 2012-13.
he Chief Minister said that recently the Government of India has taken a decision to apply normal crop loan rates (7%) to rescheduled crop loans in the calamity-affected (like drought, cyclone, floods) mandals. He wanted the bankers to strictly adhere to this norms and help the farmers in distress in this regard.
The Chief Minister said the State Government also announced ‘vaddileni runalu’ (interest-free loans) for SHG women and this will improve repayment by them.
The Chief Minister said as far as the State Government is concerned, Banks are partners are in progress and called upon them to play a pro-active role in the successful implementation of development and welfare programmes and sought the Banks’ unstinted cooperation. He said Andhra Pradesh will be Number 1 in implementing the development and welfare programmes and Banks play a big role in this achievement. However, he said at Branch level, performance should improve.
Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the State Government increased the input subsidy from Rs.4,500/- to Rs.10,000/- per hectare and now it is being paid directly to the farmers directly through online. Thought the State Government released Rs.1800 crs, only Rs.1400 crs only could be disbursed. This is because the banks could not open bank accounts for the farmers. Regarding Rythu Rakshana Hastham, he said we are not able to reach the desired results since there are problems at the banks’ branch level.
The Chief Minister said banks have to cooperate in the synchronisation of banks accounts with Aadhar numbers. He said the bankers have to substantially increase the loans for SHG women groups as well as women entrepreneurs since the State Government have decided to open exclusive industrial parks for women in each district.
Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Revenue Minister Raghuveera Reddy, Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, Women and Child Development Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, Rural Development Minister Manikya Vara Prasad in their brief speeches asked the banks to extend loans to farmers liberally particularly to the LEC card holders, women and youth. They said the bank branches down the line should be directed to help the farmers and other sections with loans. They sought banks loans for solar power systems and for warehousing too. The ministers wanted the scale of finance to be increased and bank accounts opened for the farmers said that banks should also provide loans for solar pumpsets and stressed the need for speeding up loans to LEC card holders and SHG women.
B. A. Prabakar, President, SLBC of Andhra Pradesh and CMD of Andhra Bank in his welcome address said that the banks surpassed the targets under Annual Action Plan for 2012-13. As against the target of Rs.37,128 crs, the achievement is Rs.50,157 crs which works out to 135%. Rs.23,491 crs was disbursed under agricultural term loans against the target of Rs.15,844 crs with an achievement of 148%. He said the total disbursemetns under agriculture credit during the year (2012-13) was Rs.73,648 crs against the target of Rs.52,972 crs with an achievement of 139%. Under MSE sector, banks disbursed Rs.11,255 crs during 2012-13 against the projection of Rs.9,343 crs and achievement is 120%.
Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, Social Welfare Minister Pithani Satyanarayana, Rural Development Minister Manikya Varaprasad, Cooperation Minister Kasu Krishna Reddy, Women and Child Welfare Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, Chief Secretary P.K.Mohanty and others attended the meeting. CCLA IYR Krishna Rao, Principal Secretary, Finance, V Bhasker, Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, Raymond Peter, Commissioner, Agriculture, Madhusudan Rao, Principal Secretary, Industries, Pradeep Chandra, other Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Heads of Departments, Top Executives of all Banks were present at the meeting. (NSS)