STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta on Wednesday said J&K government is envisaging to double the size of the economy in the 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 a significant role in catapulting economic growth to the next level in UT of J&K.
“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 the roadmap of opening banking outlets in villages having population over 5000, by the end of June 2022.
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.
He impressed upon the need for a robust mobile banking system in the UT while reiterating the need for scaling up the figures under Priority Sector lending and showing empathy for the last man in the economic pyramid of the society.
Despite pressing needs, he said, there has not been significant uptick in Priority Sector Lending. “We have been emphasizing on more coverage under Priority Sector Lending but things aren’t improving on the ground. Ticket size and numbers need to go up so that sustainable employment generating units are set up,” he said.
“A suitable IT enabled system must be put in place for bringing about real change through government sponsored schemes and the sponsoring agencies and banks should exercise due diligence viz a-viz quality of sponsorship, appraisals and sustainability of units. The three things should converge to showcase transparency in the process. A portal with details of all credit schemes, sponsoring departments & Banks should come up soon which will help all concerned to keep a track on the entire journey of applications under Government Sponsored Schemes. It will make the job of aspiring entrepreneurs to avail the facilities much easier and rejections on flimsy grounds will come down.”
He urged for increasing the credit off take under Mission Youth and said , “I am of the belief that Mission Youth Schemes are the most attractive schemes in the entire country and large number of youth need to be covered under the scheme.”
He also directed Banks to leverage the big potential in High Density Apple and other fruit plantations by devising the tailor made scheme which should be enterprise driven rather than government driven. While expressing dismay over the low CD ratio of Jammu district, he urged lending institutions to increase their credit dispensation so as to achieve a 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.
It was informed that against the Annual Target to cover 42, 658 beneficiaries during FY 2021-22 banks have sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs.1840.15 Crore to 53, 299 beneficiaries under six major employment generation schemes.
He informed that Rs.138.49 Crore have been disbursed to 2,081 beneficiaries under MUMKIN & Tejaswani schemes of Mission Youth upto June 10, 2022.
It was further informed that 35,634 KCCs (crop) and 32,552 KCC (AH) have been issued during the financial year 2021-22 and near saturation has been achieved under the programme.
Against the quarterly target of holding 651 financial literacy camps, 807 financial literacy camps have been organized ending March 2022
He further said that the aggregate CD ratio in J&K has increased from 53.77% as on 31.03.2021 to 57.04% as on 31.03.2022.
Saying that social security is at the heart of the welfare effort of the government, the Chief Secretary directed for increasing social awareness among the people with regard to the benefits of PMSBY, PMJJBY, PMJDY and APY schemes.
Dr. Mehta informed that J&K’s performance under PM Svanidhi is amongst the best in the country and directed the banks to expedite disbursal of 2nd instalment under PM svanidhi to the eligible beneficiaries.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the Banks to take advantage of the digitization of the land records which was a long pending demand of the lending institutions as an enabler for extending hassle free credit in UT of J&K.