“Priority to credit to buy milch cattle”

Collector U. Sagayam on Tuesday urged banks in the district to accord priority for providing credit to purchase milch cattle in order to boost milk production.

Addressing the District Consultative Committee meeting, he said that bankers should strive to provide subsidised loan to at least 1,000 dairy farmers within one month.

Achieving this would lead to an increase of 15,000 litres in milk production.

The Central Government was providing 25 per cent of the project cost as subsidy through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

The Collector also released the detailed Annual Credit Plan 2011 for Madurai district.

He noted that the in last fiscal, banks had exceeded the ACP target of Rs.2,287 crore and had disbursed a total of Rs. 2,360 crore during 2010-11.

The performance in various government schemes was also laudable, he said.

During the meeting it was discussed that 265 people in urban poor category had obtained loans under a scheme. Another 61 unemployed youth also had received loans.

P. Rangaraj, Deputy General Manager of Canara Bank, the Lead Bank for Madurai district, A.J. George, Assistant General Manager of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), N.P. Rajan, Deputy General Manager, Indian Bank, R. Shankar Narayan, Assistant General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), S. Samuel Inbaraj, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), KN. Subramanian, Lead District Manager, B. Anandhavalli, Project Officer, Mahalir Thittam, took part in the consultative meeting, according to a press release.