SBI disburses over Rs 5.5 cr loans

Nalgonda, Aug 30 (UNI) The State Bank of India (SBI) issued loans to the tune of Rs four crore to 400 people on the inaugural day of the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign held here yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion SBI Assistant General Manager K Raghunandan said Rs 1.61 crore had been distributed in the second round to fifty people. Loans towards agriculture, education and housing were disbursed, he added.

He said the bank would continue its financial aid programmes for the remaining period of Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign and about 40 supervisors and field officers of the bank had been deployed for identifying people at the village level.

Economist K Lingaiah speaking at a symposium on the occasion said Bharat Nirman was all about development of key infrastructure in rural areas in a short time and about developing villages as alternate growth centres.

He said Bharat Nirman was an ambitious programme to provide roads to areas with at least 1,000 population, create additional irrigation capacity of one crore hectare, build 60 lakh houses for the rural poor and facilitate telephone connection in every village.

The programme was being implemented in 16 states.

UNI BR JJ 1720