The Hindu : Today's Paper News : Cold hits a new low in Kolkata

News on cold wave, reports blanket distribution in Burdwan
The Hindu : Today's Paper News : Cold hits a new low in Kolkata

DCC meeting finalised road map to improve priority sector lending in Burdwan

Meeting of District Level Coordination Committee (DCC) of Bankers headed by District Magistrate Burdwan held today at RTC Conference Hall and deliberated in detail to improve CD Ratio of the district in a time bound action plan.

 

Main decisions agreed are :-

• KCC, Artisan Credit Cards, Hand loom Credit Cards, Fisher men's Credit Cards - Govt departments like Agriculture, GM DIC, Asst Director of Fisheries and Hand loom Development Officers shall furnish list of eligible farmers/ artisans/ fishermen/ weavers to Bank Branches as per the field verification and Identity cards issued by the Govt departments by 31st January 2013. Banks shall do the verification and documentation of the applications and sanction credit cards by 28th February 2013 and disburse the credit by March 2013. Officers of these departments and banks shall endeavour to reach eligible persons and assist them in filling up the applications.
• SHGs grading, credit linkage and project linkage - Govt departments dealing with SHGs shall prepare list of SHGs branch wise not having credit linkages/ bank linkages and submit to banks for credit linkages by 15th January 2013. Similarly, list of SHGs pending for Grade I (six months old and above), Grade II (One year and old with grade I) and eligible for project linkages/ sanction of project for economic activity shall be furnished to the bank branches. Banks shall allow CC accounts with eligible limit, grading as applicable and sanction of projects of SHGs by 31st January onwards. All SHGs should be allowed grading against self appraisal reports if no feedback of banks is received in time.
• All projects for economic activity by SHGs, BSKP, PMEGP etc shall be sanctioned and subsidy claimed by banks in February 2013. Govt assures adequate interest subsidy, capital subsidy and credit subsidy to banks as front end by end of February 2013.
• Credit investment subsidy against farm mechanisation and minor irrigation shall be made available to banks as soon as claimed.
• Bank accounts to all households in the district shall be opened by the banks in their service area by 31st March 2013 to ensure zero balance accounts to all families for electronic benefits transfers in future. NPR database in CD is being provided to banks centrally by finance department of Govt. of West Bengal. BDOs shall provide necessary administrative support to organise camps for ZERO BALANCE accounts to be organised by Banks.
• To coordinate the time bound action plan implementation at block level, committee headed by BDOs shall hold Block Level Bankers Committee (BLBC) meetings from 9th to 16th January 2013 where field officers of all departments, bank managers and civil administration shall attend.
• Weekly monitoring meeting to be held by ADM Development with LDM and NBARAD to review the progress.

Lets hope CD ratio is improved by at least two points from present 31, which is one of the lowest in the state.

Similar exercise last year yielded good results.

Credit Investment Subsidy to KCC holders in Burdwan - farmer friendly transparent process

Kisan Credit Card is one of the most popular credit facility to farmers in West Bengal now, thanks to proactive role of State in popularising KCC and new simplified approach to issue the KCC.

• This year Banks and Cooperatives issued 214540 KCC in Burdwan district till November 2012 that includes 31000 fresh & new farmers. Rs 437 crores disbursed as credit to farmers through KCC during Kharif and it is likely to be doubled during Rabi/ Boro.
• Recently State Agriculture department has issued guidelines for Credit Investment Subsidy to KCC farmers as incentive to promote minor irrigation support and farm mechanisation. Under the scheme, one time electrification cost of Rs 8000 per farmer for Electric Pump set up to 5 HP is reimbursed to WBSEDCL directly by District Agriculture Officers (DDA). The beneficiary farmer must be KCC holder, having agriculture land and must produce copy of quotation against service connection charges from local Group Supply Office of WBSEDCL to get the subsidy in his favour directly to the WBSEDCL accounts.
• Regional Manager of WBSEDCL and DDA has been advised to ensure that all eligible and willing farmers are issued quotations immediately.
• Similarly, those willing to purchase new Pump sets may get Subsidy of Rs 10000 maximum up to 5 HP machine against KCC loan.
• Investment Subsidy is also available for power tiller/ tractor up to Rs 45000, Zero Tillage machine up to Rs 15000, Reaper up to Rs 15000 and Pump set up to Rs 10000 per farmer. In all these cases the Subsidy to be released to the Banks against the loan disbursement for these purposes using KCC/ Direct Agriculture loan. So there is no chance of leakages.
• In Burdwan, 2700 is the target for One Time Electric Connection Scheme with fund allocation of Rs 216 Lakhs and Rs 824 lakhs has been allocated for farm mechanisation/ pump sets which may cover further 7000 farmers this year.
• Details of these initiatives have been provided to all Block/ GP offices through ADAs.
• District authority has launched special mission approach for universalising of KCC from January to March 2013 activating the field functionaries and BLBCs at block level.