SRINAGAR, JUNE 22: The Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today said J&K government is envisaging to double the size of economy in coming five years and banks have a huge role to play in realising the target.
He made these comments while chairing the 7th Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee meeting in Srinagar to review achievements of banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir for the year ended March 2022.
Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary Finance, Industries & Commerce, Vivek Bharadwaj, Principal Secretary, HUDD Dheeraj Gupta, MD & CEO, J&K Bank ( Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Kamal P. Patnaik and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, LDMs, line departments, insurance companies were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Mehta impressed upon the banks and Financial Institutions to play significant role in catapulting economic growth to next level in UT of J&K.
He said credit dispensation can’t be seen through the prism of statistics, but has to be informed by the imperative of helping those who need the credit the most to improve their lives on sustained basis.
“The ultimate aim of loaning has to be to help improve employment generation at an aggregate level, but not simply help one individual.
This would presuppose seamless coordination between government departments and banks and improved quality of sponsorship, appraisal and units established,” Dr Mehta observed.
Earlier in his welcome address MD & CEO J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash assured J&K Government that banks operating in J&K will extend all possible support for implementing the programmes and schemes aimed at entrepreneurial development, employment generation and poverty alleviation in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The Chief Secretary exhorted upon banks operating in the UT to ensure all school going children in the UT have a bank account.
While appreciating banks for 100% coverage of the unbanked villages by opening of banking touch points under National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Programme, he urged upon the banks to cover remaining 3 villages under roadmap of opening banking outlets in villages having population over 5000, by the end of June 2022.
He directed IT department, J&K Government to come up with a portal having information about all employment generation schemes and make it convenient for unemployed youth and budding entrepreneurs to make an informed choice regarding the facility he/she can avail.
He called upon the banks to show empathy towards the unemployed youth by guiding them towards the path of prosperity and self-sufficiency through various credit dispensation schemes tailored to their entrepreneurial aspirations and unique circumstances.
“With large-scale development and investment that UT is going to witness in coming years due to roll out of new industrial policy, we are expecting economy to double in next five years.
In achieving this goalbanks have a huge role to play,” he said Financial literacy in real terms is bringing more people under the ambit of banking.
“Banks should work in tandem with education department to make sure all school going children have bank account which is real measure of success of financial literacy and financial Inclusion.”
He impressed upon the need for robust mobile banking system in the UT while reiterating the need for scaling up the figures under Priority Sector lending and showing empathy for the last man in economic pyramid of the society.
Despite pressing need, he said, there has not been significant uptick in Priority Sector Lending. “We have been emphasizing on more coverage under Priority Sector Lending but things aren’t improving on the ground. Ticket size and numbers need to go up so that sustainable employment generating units are set up,” he said.
“A suitable IT enabled system must be put in place for bringing about real change through government sponsored schemes and the sponsoring agencies and banks should exercise due diligence viz a-viz quality of sponsorship, appraisals and sustainability of units.
The three things should converge to showcase transparency in the process. A portal with details of all credit schemes, sponsoring departments & Banks should come up soon which will help all concerned to keep a track on the entire journey of applications under Government Sponsored Schemes.
It will make job of aspiring entrepreneurs to avail the facilities that much easier and rejections on flimsy grounds will come down.”
He urged for increasing the credit off take under Mission Youth and said , “I am of the belief that Mission Youth Schemes are the most attractive schemes in the entire country and large number of youth need to be covered under the scheme.”
He also directed Banks to leverage the big potential in High Density Apple and other fruit plantation by devising the tailor made scheme which should be enterprise driven rather than government driven.
While expressing dismay over low CD ratio of Jammu district, he urged upon the lending institutions to increase their credit dispensation so as to achieve CD ratio of at least 60 % across all the districts in the UT.
Dr. Mehta informed that J&K’s performance under PM Svanidhi is amongst the best in the country and directed the banks to expedite disbursal of 2nd instalment under PM svanidhi to the eligible beneficiaries.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the Banks to take advantage of the digitization of the land records which was a long pending demand of the lending institutions as an enabler for extending hassle free credit in UT of J&K.
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