In view of the outbreak of Coronavirus, the Cooperative Department of Uttarakhand has decided to provide agriculture loans of Rs 2000 crores to the farmers. Due to the heavy rain and snowfall in the state, farmers are facing a lot of difficulties. To give momentum to the government’s plan of doubling farmers’ income, the Cooperative Department held a meeting, wherein crop loans were discussed in detail.
During the review meeting of the higher officials of the Department of Cooperation with NABARD, the Cooperative Minister Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat reviewed the crop loan disbursed in the FY19-20 and finalized a target of loan disbursement for this year. Dr. Rawat has set a target of allocating loans worth Rs 2000 crore to farmers through State Cooperative Banks and District Cooperative Banks in the new financial year.
For this financial year, NABARD has given in-principle agreement to give Rs 2000 crore to cooperative banks, as told by the Minister. The state and district cooperative banks can avail the benefits of this. The cooperative banks will have to increase their coverage and distribute loans to maximum number of people, the Minister further added.
Elaborating more on the loan disbursement to cooperative banks, Deepak Kumar, MD, State Cooperative Bank said that a target of Rs 1400 crores was set for the disbursement of crop loans and the same was achieved by the banks during last year. This year’s target is of Rs 2000 crores will also be achieved timely. Dr Rawat also told that about 2 lakh migrants are returning to their native place in Uttarakhand due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, initiatives should be taken to link them with employment through cooperatives.
He said that migrants can opt for self-employment by taking loans from Uttarakhand Cooperative Banks. At the same time, the government has instructed the officers to computerize cooperative societies soon.
Managing co-operative societies BM Mishra, MD State Cooperative Bank Deepak Kumar, Chief General Manager NABARD Sunil Chawla, Deputy General Manager NABARD etc. were also present in the meeting.
