Banks should give priority to agri, education sectors
Surjit kumar Dhal, BHUBANESWAR, JULY 12: Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari Thursday urged the bankers to focus more on agriculture and education lending.
The Finance Minister, speaking at the 155th State Level Bankers’ Committee meeting here, said that the State Government has set target of Rs 75,611.96 crore for priority lending and banks operating in the State should work on meeting the set target.
He urged Reserve Bank of India, Finance Department and SLBC officials to organise loan mela in every district of the State on regular intervals to make people aware of credit facilities available for them under various welfare schemes.
Expressing happiness over significant improvement in loan-deposit ratio, Pujari said that the government has achieved a target of Rs 59,936.36 crore loan as on March 31, 2019 against the set annual loan target of Rs. 71,420 crore for the financial year 2019-20. In MSME sector, loan to the tune of Rs 25,911 core has been distributed as on March 31, 2019 as against the annual set target of Rs 17,919 crore, a growth of 144.60 percent, he added.
Expressing concern over frequent disruption of banking services in Maoist-affected areas due to internet connectivity, the Minister further stated that the Finance Department has decided to allocate Rs 2 crore to Odisha Livelihoods Mission for setting up of 50 solar V-sat systems in those areas.
