Kohima, February 24 (MExN): The State Credit Plan for the state of Nagaland for the year 2016-17 was launched at the State Credit Seminar organized by the Nagaland Regional Office of NABARD on February 22 at Kohima. Pankaj Kumar, IAS, Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland was the chief guest on the occasion.
The seminar saw participation from senior level State Government officials of the Agriculture and Allied Sector Depts and RD Dept, ICAR representative, RBI, senior bankers of Commercial Banks, Nagaland State Cooperative Bank and Nagaland Rural Bank. The Seminar discussed issues under various sectors that need to be addressed in order to improve credit flow at the ground level during 2016-17.
“We at NABARD have been constantly endeavouring to ensure ground level credit flow and greater financial inclusion of the poor and weaker sections. We undertake the exercise of making district-wise assessments of potential available for lending under various productive sectors through our Potential Linked Credit Plans (PLPs).
The aggregation of the district-PLPs for 2006-17 have projected a credit flow of Rs.1098.24 crore for the State indicating an increase of 21.30 per cent over the last year. Out of the total credit potential for the State under total priority sector, Rs.588.22 crore has been assessed under agriculture,” stated A Chakrabarty, General Manager, NABARD while addressing the State Credit Seminar 2016-17.
While dwelling on the theme of the State Credit Plan of “Accelerating the pace of capital formation in agriculture and allied sector”, he stressed on the need for a focused approach towards investment credit, the major driver of private sector capital formation in agriculture, as it would lead to much needed increase in capital formation and consequent increase in agricultural productivity.
While launching the State Focus Paper, Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar in his address, appreciated NABARD for preparing the State Credit Plan and organising the seminar where all stakeholders concerned could deliberate on the estimated credit potential of the state and implementation of the Plan. He expressed concern over the 29 RD blocks in the state remaining unbanked till date. With the Credit Deposit Ratio of the state hovering at around 30% he emphasised the need for the individual banks to improve their Credit Deposit Ratio.
Kumar also stressed on the huge potential under horticulture and animal husbandry sectors and financing Self Help Groups having good track of loan recovery. He urged upon improving recovery of loans particularly from the defaulting salaried employees of the State Government.
Aridaman Kumar, DGM, RBI urged all the stakeholders to work together for achieving the credit potential projected in the State Credit Plan.
Imkonglemba, IAS, Agriculture Production Commissioner, Government of Nagaland also spoke on the occasion and emphasised on coordination between the Bankers and the Line Departments at the grass root level.
A presentation on the sectoral projections under agriculture and allied sector, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and other priority sectors of the Credit Plan was made by NABARD followed by discussions amongst all the stakeholders.
