By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 31 Jan: Cooperative Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat said today that 1200 financial literacy awareness seminars would be organised in the state by the Cooperative Department along with NABARD, in which the schemes being implemented by the two organisations would be discussed with the villagers across the state.
Dr Rawat made this observation while interacting with officials in a review meeting held at the Directorate of State Integrated Cooperative Development Project here today. He said that, in the 1200 workshops to be held in the villages of the state, street plays would also be performed by cultural groups at the local level. Each branch of the District Cooperative Bank and State Cooperative Bank would organise four events. To make these seminars successful, NABARD would give Rs 6000 per seminar to the banks. He said that the Uttarakhand Cooperative Department had given loans at zero rate of interest to six and a half lakh farmers under the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Sahakari Kisan Kalyan Yojana. He claimed that the farmers had been able to double their income with the help of these interest free loans. The Mukhyamantri Ghasiyari Kalyan Yojana is being run in all the districts of the state. However, wider publicity of these schemes is required to ensure that even more eligible families take advantage of these schemes. Through these workshops, the villagers would be made fully aware of these schemes of the state government.
Cooperative Minister Rawat said that 2 farmers and 4 officers from each district of the state, and a total of 30 farmers would be taken to 5 states, each, so that they could witness the horticulture and agriculture activities in those states and consider their adoption as per their needs. The minister instructed the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, to select excellent progressive farmers for this. Rawat said that he would also hand over the farmers’ study report to the registrar’s office. For this, NABARD had sanctioned an amount of Rs 2 crores.
Dhan Singh Rawat added that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami would launch the Mukhya Mantri Ghasiyari Kalyan Yojana in districts from 15 February to 15 March. It is worth noting that this is an ambitious scheme of the government and women are benefiting a lot from this scheme in the districts of hill areas. While earlier, the scheme had been running in only 4 districts, now it would be implemented in the hill areas of the entire state.
Rawat also disclosed that a cooperative student credit card loan scheme would also be implemented in the state.The Regional Cooperative Union of the Cooperative Department would provide free coaching to 20 students of Antyodaya Kisan for civil services, NDA and other competitions from the next session. For this, funds would be arranged from the Education Fund of the State Cooperative Union.
The Cooperative Minister also stated that, from 10 February to 15 March, a One Time Settlement (OTS) Scheme of the Cooperative Bank would be implemented with the objective of bringing back as much Non Performing Assets (NPA) to the bank as possible. The department hopes for a large amount of NPA money stuck to return through this one time settlement.
State Cooperative Bank’s MD Neeraj Belwal added that an amount of over Rs 166 crores is stuck in NPAs, about which two FIRs had been registered, while orders of more than a dozen DMs are lying pending. He also disclosed that in the last year, the banks had recovered NPAs worth Rs 14 crores.
Rawat instructed the officers to ensure computerisation work of 670 MPAX before 15 February.
The Managing Director, State Cooperative Bank, said that the computerisation work is in the final stages and it will be made live soon.
Registrar Alok Kumar Pandey welcomed VK Bisht, Chief General Manager of NABARD, who came from Jharkhand State for the first time in the review meeting of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Department. NABARD gives cheap loans for all the schemes of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Department.
At the review meeting, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Uttarakhand, Alok Kumar Pandey, Chief General Manager of NABARD VK Bisht, Additional Registrar Ira Upreti, Anand Shukla, Joint Registrar Neeraj Belwal, MP Tripathi, Deputy Registrar Ramindri Mandrawal, Managing Director, PCU, Man Singh Saini, Deputy Registrar, Garhwal Division, Narendra Singh Rawat, Deputy Registrar, Kumaon Division, Manohar Singh Martolia, DDM, NABARD, Bhupendra Kumawat were among those present.
