Bihar: Banks asked to distribute KCCs to farmers

Patna, May 19: The Bihar government has directed all public sector Banks in the state to fulfill the target of distributing Kisan Credit Cards(KCC) among the farmers this year.

Expressing concern over the failure of the Banks, including the Commercial Banks, the Regional Rural Banks and the Cooperative Banks, to fulfill the tragetted distribution of KCCs in the state last year, the government had clarified that no lapse on the part of the Bank authorities would be allowed during the current fiscal in this regard.

Releasing the detailed figures of last year's disbursal of KCCs in the state, the state Finance Ministry sources here today said while the Commercial Bank branches had distribued only about 2,03,935 KCCs againt the targetted 2,50,000, the state-based RRBs had disbursed only 1,40,071 KCCs against the target of 1,90,000.

The performance of the state Cooperative Bank branches was, however, the worst as they disbursed about 55,375 KCCs against the targetted 1,60,000 during the last fiscal, the sources said.

The government had decided to set up a monitoring cell this year to maintain a strict vigil on the equitable distribution of the KCCs in the Bihar this year.

Incidentally, more than than 21.50 lakh KCCs had so far been distributed among the states's four million-odd farmers through more than 2100 branches of various Banks in the state.

The state government had targetted to provide KCCs to all the four million-odd farmers in the state within the next two years, Finance Ministry sources told UNI