By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 15 Jan: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated as the Chief Guest in a State Credit Seminar organised at a local hotel under the aegis of NABARD, here, today. On this occasion, he also unveiled the State Focus Policy Paper 2024-25. Expressing special gratitude to NABARD, the CM said that, for the development of agriculture, horticulture and small and medium sector industries in Uttarakhand, NABARD has prepared a loan scheme for an amount of Rs 40,000 crores this year, which is thirty-three percent more than last year. Dhami observed that that this will prove to be a boon for the small and marginal farmers and people engaged in small and medium industries in the state. He asserted that proper monitoring of this loan system is also very important.
The CM noted that banks play the biggest role in making loans and credit easily available to the needy and deserving people. Banks will have to take care that these people do not have to wander unnecessarily for loan related formalities. For this, banks will have to work in mission mode.
CM Dhami asked NABARD officials to start special schemes for the women of the state so that they can also get more benefits from these schemes. He shared that, recently, he had interacted with the beneficiary women of Tehri district. He emphasised that it is very important to have simplification in taking loans from banks for such schemes. He said that it has been seen many times that people who really want to do something are often deprived of loans.
The Chief Minister asserted that the State Government constituted the Migration Prevention Commission to stop migration from the hill areas. He called for a special campaign to be run for allotment of loans in the hills. He claimed that the government is continuously working on reverse migration, and banks should also become partners in this work. He said that each bank branch will have to work with a certain target for the allocation of loans of NABARD.
Dhami said that the state government is working for the development of Uttarakhand with visionary thinking. Continuous work is being done in this direction to ensure equal development of urban areas as well as rural areas. He observed that Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Tehri are credit deficient districts. Special attention should be given to increasing loan allocation in these three districts. He said that there are 7.60 lakh beneficiaries of PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme in the state and 6.89 lakh farmers have been issued Kisan Credit Cards. Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, everyone would have to make collective efforts to provide Kisan Credit Card facility to the remaining farmers also. He said that the government is also implementing schemes like subsidies, credit linked schemes, and interest subsidy for the common people, under which schemes like Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Self-Employment Scheme, Deendayal Upadhyay Cooperative Farmers Welfare Scheme, Chief Minister Self-Employment Scheme are being operated. He called upon the banks to run a special campaign to provide Kisan Credit Cards to all the farmers of the state so that the benefits of loans can reach them on time.
The Chief Minister added that the main objective of Vikas Bharat Sankalp Yatra is to take the government schemes to weaker sections. He appealed to all the stakeholders, departments and banks to participate enthusiastically in this yatra, make people aware and play an active role in making the government schemes reach the common people. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the target of doubling the income of farmers. The state government is continuously working to achieve this goal.
NABARD Chief General Manager VK Bisht provided detailed information about various activities conducted by NABARD in the state.
On this occasion, Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi, Dr Dhan Singh Rawat, Additional Chief Secretaries Radha Raturi and Anand Vardhan, Secretaries BVRC Purushottam, HC Semwal, SN Pandey and representatives of various departments and banks were also present.
