Collector C. Kamaraj on Monday told the banks in the district to accord “top priority” to the Kalaignar Veetu Vasathi Thittam (KVVT) as the Chief Minster had urged during the recent two-day Collector's Conference at Chennai.
Addressing the District Consultative Committee meeting here, he said that the implementation of the scheme would start soon and money would be required immediately. Bankers must try and accommodate all applications and accord sanction expeditiously.
KN. Subramanian, Lead District Manager, informed the meeting that Union Bank of India had received 850 applications so far (Kottampatti), Canara Bank 625 (Thumbaipatti), Indian bank 400 (Karungalakudi) and State Bank of India 300 (Melur). The contents of the application form for this scheme was also discussed with Project Director of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) V. Pitchai, during the meeting.
Education loan
Mr. Subramanian said that the State Government had nominated Zonal Deputy Tahsildars as the competent authority to issue income certificate for a Central Government scheme that provides a moratorium on education loan during course period plus six months.
The ‘Central Scheme to provide Interest Subsidy' would cover all educational loans that were or are being disbursed after April 1, 2009, irrespective of the date of sanction, to students whose parents' annual income was below Rs. 4.5 lakh.
The list of courses would be published by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development after consulting the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and University Grants Commission (UGC), he said.
The Collector urged Corporation Commissioner S. Sebastine, who was present, to create awareness regarding Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing Urban Poor (ISHUP), a Centrally-sponsored affordable housing scheme.
Discussing crop insurance, he instructed the Agriculture Department officials to increase coverage under the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS).
Banking indicators
Reviewing the banking indicators of the district, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Assistant General Manager A.J. George said that performance in most areas was good.
He noted that as on June deposits had increased by 18.41 per cent year-on-year with priority sector advances above the bench mark level.
CPI (M) MLA N. Nanmaran, who represents Madurai East Constituency, suggested that banks focus on extending credit to the minority community, especially the Muslims. The advances to minority sector was 3.38 per cent as against the mandated 10 per cent.
A. Thangavel, Project Officer, Mahalir Thittam, discussed the implementation of Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).
S. Vijayakumar, Assistant General Manager of Madurai circle of Canara Bank, the Lead Bank for Madurai district, and Kirubakaran, Deputy Collector (Trainee), also took part in the meeting.
