Concern over delay in grounding schemes

Bankers not cooperating with minorities: MIM member

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has expressed concern over the inordinate delay in grounding schemes under bankable loan schemes for minorities that was being implemented through the Minorities Finance Corporation.

MIM member Jaffar Hussain who raised the issue during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday lamented that of the more than 1.5 lakh applications received from eligible youth of minorities communities seeking assistance under the scheme during 2015-16, the government had not cleared even 10 %. In case of those whose applications were processed, banks were refusing to release loans on one pretext or the other. The department stopped inviting applications from eligible beneficiaries under the scheme which promised 80 % subsidy and 20 % loan component subsequently.

Budget released

Deputy Chief Minister Mohd. Mahmood Ali said several meetings had been convened with bankers to resolve the issue and ensure timely release of funds. The government on its part was releasing the available budget from time to time for meeting the requirements under the scheme.

The government had incurred actual expenditure of ₹69 crore against the ₹150 crore allocated under the scheme last financial year. During the current fiscal, ₹45 crore of the allocated ₹150 crore had been released and actual expenditure of ₹22.5 crore was incurred by the end of the second quarter.

Warehouse capacity

Marketing and Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao said the State government had decided to spend ₹1,024.5 crore for creating additional storage capacity of 18.3 lakh metric tonnes in different parts of the State. In addition, a grant of ₹221.22 crore had been received from the Centre under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

Works on creation of 14.67 lakh metric tonnes storage space had been completed and the balance warehouses would become operational soon. The department had earmarked these warehouses for storage of seeds, food grains, fertilisers and other commodities and priority was accorded to government storage in them. The department could save ₹150 crore in the construction costs as the tenders with close to 20 % lesser prices were received after putting in place transparent tendering process. The amount thus saved had been utilised for power supply, weigh bridges and other amenities.