The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Give priority to farm credit, Collector tells bankers

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Friday, Jun 26, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Give priority to farm credit, Collector tells bankers

Staff Reporter

‘Be liberal while considering applications for education loan’

MADURAI: Collector N. Mathivanan urged bankers to focus on advances to agriculture sector and achieve all targets set in this regard.

Addressing a District Level Review Committee meeting convened here by the Lead Bank on Thursday, he noted that advances in March to agriculture sector had recorded a slight decline. While terming the CD (credit deposit) ratio of 97 per cent as good, he wanted the bankers to strive to achieve 100 per cent as some other districts in the State had achieved.

He also said that 10 model projects for providing to micro, small and medium enterprises, each upto Rs. 1 crore, were being prepared by the Lead Bank and were likely to be completed in a week’s time.

Calling upon bankers to be liberal while considering applications for education loan, the Collector said that it could help in the transformation of the district.

KN. Subramanian, Lead District Manager, said that bankers must take note of the fact that Indian Bankers’ Association had liberalised the guidelines for education loans, leaving little scope for rejecting loan applications.

S. Selvaraj, Assistant General Manager, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), pointed to news reports on monsoon and said that this was the time farmers needed support. As Madurai had vast tracts of land under farming, banks must extend credit as agricultural operations like digging borewell and other infrastructure works would have to continue even if rains failed, he said.

R. Shankar Narayan, Assistant General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), highlighted various projects taken up under schemes such as Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Watershed Development fund, self-help groups and reviving cooperative banks.

K.P. Pai, Assistant General Manager, Canara Bank, said that the performance of the district in giving differential rate of interest loans was also not up to the expectations. It should be 1 per cent of the total advances, he added.

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