K'taka Govt seeks more support from bankers for farm loans

Bangalore, Oct 3 (UNI) Karnataka Development Commissioner A K Agarwal today sought the bankers to increase disbursement of crop loans to State farmers, hit badly by floods and drought this season.

Addressing a State-level Bankers' Conference (SLBC) here, he said sowing operation was taken up in only 62 lakh hectares of the targetted 73 lakh hectares annually during this kharif season, of which crops in 20 lakh hectares had withered due to deficit rainfall.

''The State, after a good performance in the farm sector last year, has suffered losses due to flood havoc and drought this year.

I am quite happy with the credit flow to the farm sector despite the natural calamities. However, bankers should speed up disbursal of crop loans to farmers to allow them to recover some of their losses,'' he said.

RBI General Manager V V Vasanthan, in his address, appealed to top executives of banks to instruct their branches to enable Karnataka achieve 100 per cent financial inclusion. ''Prepare a roadmap for the purpose as early as possible,'' he told the bankers.

Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director C P Swarnkar, also the SLBC Chairman, said that under doubling of farm credit, public sector banks had achieved 37 per cent of the annual target of disbursal of farm credit in the first five months this fiscal.

Against the target of Rs 14,646 crore, they had lent Rs 5,416 crore so far. Seven lead banks in the State had selected one district each for 100 per cent coverage of families under financial inclusion by opening No Frills Accounts and issuing General Purpose Credit Cards.

He said that during the first quarter, the banks had opened 2,68,549 No Frills Accounts and issued 2,576 General Purpose Credit Cards with a credit limit of Rs 6.14 crore.

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