Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 16: N.N. Vohra, Governor, today released the “State Focus Paper (SFP)” during “State Credit Seminar” organized by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) here.
In the SFP the total credit potential in the State for the Financial Year 2015-16 has been assessed at Rs. 13683.31 crore, which includes Rs. 2541.88 crore valuing Short Term Loans for Agriculture Production and Marketing; Rs. 2191.98 crore valuing Term Loan for Agriculture and allied activities; Rs. 4317.80 crore for Micro & Small Enterprises sector and Rs. 4631.65 crore for other priority sectors.
Emphasising the high importance of securing improvement in achieving the loan disbursement related targets set for each sector of activity, the Governor suggested an effectively co-ordinated approach by all the stakeholders and advised all the banks, particularly the public sector banks, to extend timely, adequate and hassle free credit to the farmers as per the potential identified in the “State Focus Paper”.
He urged the State Government to expedite the digitization of land records, urgently achieve cent per cent issue of Kissan Credit Cards, simplify the loaning procedures and advised the banks to ensure credit for the various sub-sectors- Irrigation, Horticulture, Floriculture, Dairy, Poultry, Agro Storage & Processing, Sheep Farming, Handlooms and Handicrafts activities for speeding up the economic development of the State.
The Governor emphasized the need for establishing the required infrastructure for achieving the balanced growth of rural sector. For this purpose he stressed the need of an integrated approach for developing the Agriculture and Allied sectors along with MSME units for maximizing production and productivity and achieving sustained growth of the rural economy. He suggested the creation of adequate post harvest facilities like godowns, cold storages and processing facilities to help farmers realize better prices for their agriculture produce. The Governor highlighted the need for strengthening co-operative societies and Self Help Groups and role of financial institutions to meet the needs of the farmers.
On the occasion, the welcome address was given by S.A. Pandey, CGM, NABARD, J&K Regional Office, Sanjeev Dhamija, DGM, NABARD, gave a presentation on State Focus Paper and State Credit Projections-2015-16, while a formal vote of thanks was given by Ranbir Singh, GM, NABARD J&K.
B.R. Sharma, Principal Secretary Planning; Asgar Hassan Samoon, Commissioner, Agricultural Production; A.K Mattoo, GM, RBI; S.K Bhat, President SLBC were among the distinguished guests in the seminar.
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