Hyderabad, October 31: Chief Minister K Rosaiah has called upon the agents of Small Savings department to surpass their annual targets so that the State Government could tap the Centre for more funds.
Speaking on the occasion of World Thrift Day here today, he said that he was one of those who believed in the benefits of thrift. “Small savings immensely help the State Government to draw funds from the Centre which lends amounts equal to that deposited in Small Savings of the State concerned,’’ he said.
To encourage to deposit money in the small savings schemes the government was offering higher interest rates, Rosaiah said. He, however, expressed his dissatisfaction over the below-par performance of small savings in the last two years. During 2007-08 financial year, the savings was Rs 398 crore short of the target and in 2008-09 it was 590 crore short.
“For this year, agents should work not only to achieve the targets but also to surpass them,’’ he exhorted. Only a few agents were achieving targets every year and winning the awards, he noted and exhorted the others to catch up in the race. Speaking about the Abhaya Hastam scheme which was going to be launched on November 1, the chief minister said that the government had signed a memorandum with the Life Insurance Corporation on the execution of the scheme.
The government would add the same amount saved by the woman under the scheme and it would provide pension to women after they attained the age of 60 years.
Recalling his relation with the Small Savings department, Rosaiah said that he used to attend the function in the past as finance minister but now had come as chief minister. He received a thunderous applause when he referred to himself as the chief minister. “My post may have changed but I have not changed,’’ he quipped.
Finance department secretary K Sudheer said that though the Small Savings department had failed to achieve the targets in the last two financial years, 64 per cent of the target had been achieved so far this year.
The chief minister gave away awards to the best agencies and agents. Five agents each from SAS Agency, MPKBY Agency and PPF Agency won the awards.
SAS Agency’s K Prudhivi Raju collected an amount of Rs 15.46 crore, G Venkata Ram Rs 13.35 crore, PL Narasimham Rs 12.75 crore, T Suryakala Rs 12.35 crore and Mohammad Ahmed Rs 10.40 crore. MPKBY agents G Laxmidevi, K Indravatamma, P Ramadevi, Padmamma and K Harika have collected amounts ranging between Rs 2.13 crore and Rs 1.74 crore.
PPF agents Ramesh Bhattad, T Narayana Rathi, N Ramamohana Rao, M Vittalaiah and Prakash Narayana Rathi have collected amouts ranging between Rs 2.18 crore and Rs 1.27 crore.
Finance department secretary SS Rawath and Small Savings director DC Bhima Naik participated in the programme.
–Agencies