Deepening rural presence and increasing lending to key sectors in J&K: CS to Banks

Srinagar, May 31: Banks operating in the UT of J&K need to further deepen their presence in rural areas and focus on lending to critical sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, housing and education.

J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo said this while chairing the 13th meeting of UTLBC J&K, which was held to review the performance of banks and financial institutions in terms of lending and other banking services for the financial year 2023-24.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary (Finance) Santosh D. Vaidya, Secretary to Commissioner (Department of Industry and Commerce) Vikramjit Singh, Regional Director (RBI) Chandrashekhar Azad, MD & CEO J&K Bank – Convenor J&K UTLBC – Baldev Prakash, Commissioner Government Secretaries and other senior officers of Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, Heads of Departments of Government of J&K, Insurance Companies and Leading District Managers.

Directing banks to increase the flow of credit to agriculture through schemes like HADP and agriculture investment loan schemes, Atal Dulloo said, “You need to pump more funds into agriculture and related activities as J&K’s economy is largely dependent on it.” .

“Banks must also prioritize extending credit lines to key sectors such as housing and education, which is more of a long-term investment in the local and national economy,” he added.

As part of strengthening its presence in all rural areas of the UT, the Chief Secretary has urged banks to consider adopting already available Common Service Centers (CSCs) and VLEs as their Business Correspondents (BCs) to expand their reach in the areas below-served providing better banking facilities to people living in these deprived areas of the UT. Citing states like Orissa and Jharkhand as examples, banks must have a branch or BC in every panchayat to serve the common man, especially in rural areas,” he said.

The Chief Secretary also stressed the need to facilitate the formalities of sponsored programs for the general public to make the programs hassle-free.

Talking about the lack of sufficient financial penetration in J&K, Principal Secretary (Finance) Santosh D. Vaidya stressed on the need to increase lending in J&K to achieve fair ‘financialization’.

Earlier in his welcome address, J&K Bank MD & CEO Baldev Prakash expressed optimism saying, “With the support from the UT Government, RBI and NABARD, we have every reason to be optimistic that J&K’s UT bank lending scenario will make a fresh start and be the facilitator of an inclusive development of UT of J&K.”

He assured the J&K Government that banks operating in the J&K UT would continue to extend all possible support to implement programs and schemes aimed at entrepreneurship development, job creation and poverty alleviation in the UT.

Earlier, J&K Bank CEO Syed Rais Maqbool, while presenting the financial achievements of various banks in FY 2023-24, informed that banks in J&K had disbursed Rs 66,052 crore to beneficiaries for 18.15 Lac, recording the achievement of 128% in financial terms and 110 % in physical terms of the Annual Credit Plan for 2023-24.

It was also reported that banks had disbursed loans worth Rs 2,234 crore to 50,418 beneficiaries during the period under major job creation schemes.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chairman presented by the Director General of J&K UTLBC.