Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 22: The Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today said J&K Government is envisaging to double the size of economy in coming five years and banks have a huge role to play in realising the target.
He made these comments while chairing the 7th Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee meeting in Srinagar to review achievements of banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir for the year ended March 2022.
Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary Finance, Industries & Commerce, Vivek Bharadwaj, Principal Secretary, HUDD Dheeraj Gupta, MD & CEO, J&K Bank ( Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Kamal P. Patnaik and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, LDMs, line departments, insurance companies were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Mehta impressed upon the banks and Financial Institutions to play significant role in catapulting economic growth to next level in UT of J&K.
He said credit dispensation can’t be seen through the prism of statistics, but has to be informed by the imperative of helping those who need the credit the most to improve their lives on sustained basis.
“The ultimate aim of loaning has to be to help improve employment generation at an aggregate level, but not simply help one individual. This would presuppose seamless coordination between government departments and banks and improved quality of sponsorship, appraisal and units established,” Dr Mehta observed.
Earlier in his welcome address MD & CEO J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash assured J&K Government that banks operating in J&K will extend all possible support for implementing the programmes and schemes aimed at entrepreneurial development, employment generation and poverty alleviation in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The Chief Secretary exhorted upon banks operating in the UT to ensure all school going children in the UT have a bank account.
While appreciating banks for 100% coverage of the unbanked villages by opening of banking touch points under National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Programme, he urged upon the banks to cover remaining 3 villages under roadmap of opening banking outlets in villages having population over 5000, by the end of June 2022.
He directed IT department, J&K Government to come up with a portal having information about all employment generation schemes and make it convenient for unemployed youth and budding entrepreneurs to make an informed choice regarding the facility he/she can avail.
He called upon the banks to show empathy towards the unemployed youth by guiding them towards the path of prosperity and self-sufficiency through various credit dispensation schemes tailored to their entrepreneurial aspirations and unique circumstances.
While expressing dismay over low CD ratio of Jammu district, he urged upon the lending institutions to increase their credit dispensation so as to achieve CD ratio of at least 60 % across all the districts in the UT.
Earlier General Manager J&K Bank, Syed Rais Maqbool while making presentation on the financial achievements of various banks in different sectors during the Financial year 2021-22 informed that banks in J&K have achieved 82% of the Target under Annual Credit Plan by disbursing credit of Rs.36,758.34 Crore to 12,53,654 beneficiaries. Agriculture and MSME sectors have performed well in the priority sector lending.
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