By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 14 Feb: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a review of the Uttarakhand State Cooperative Banks at the Secretariat here today. In the meeting, he stressed on the need for cooperatives to focus on generating livelihood opportunities in the hills and to work harder on achieving this target. He added that, in order to enable the common people to take maximum advantage of the various schemes of the government, people should get the opportunity to avail easy loans.
The CM also stressed on continuous efforts on the part of the cooperative banks in the direction of reducing NPAs. He said that banks need to put in more efforts to improve the credit deposit ratio, especially in hill areas. Dhami said that special attention should be paid towards increasing the economic activities in the state and enhancing the livelihood of the people. More attention should be paid to cluster based approach in the rural areas.
He added, “There is a need to rapidly increase cooperative-based works in the hill districts. Efforts should be made to promote the production of coarse cereals in the state. People should be encouraged to do this. Special attention should be paid on simplification of loan procedures through cooperative banks so that common people can get full benefit of government schemes. Information about various public welfare schemes of the government should be given to the general public through seminars and camps.”
Cooperatives Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat said that, in the last 5 years, there had been a rapid reduction in the NPAs of the cooperative banks of the state. Five years ago, the NPA was around 20 per cent, which had now come down to 3.81 per cent. Efforts are being made to provide mobile banking facility through cooperative banks. The work of computerisation of all PACS in the state has been completed. Recruitment is being done in cooperative banks through IBPS.
Secretaries R Meenakshi Sundaram, BVRC Purshottam, Additional Registrar, Cooperatives, Ira Upreti, and MD, Cooperatives, Neeraj Belwal, were present at the meeting.
