The Hindu : Plan outlay for district up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Plan outlay for district up

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 29. Annual action plan for Hyderabad district for 2004-2005 with an outlay of Rs. 127.44 crores was released on Monday. The plan outlay, which covers 57,019 beneficiaries, is up from Rs. 103.82 crores fixed for 2003-2004.

Under the plan, an outlay of Rs. 1,100 lakhs is provided for the Scheduled Castes' Society, Rs. 51.93 lakhs for Scheduled Tribes' Society, Rs. 90 lakhs for Backward Classes Society, Rs. 1,690 lakhs for State Minorities Finance Corporation and Rs. 50 crores for VAMBAY scheme.

The district Collector, M. Veerabhadraiah, who released the action plan, said Hyderabad, being an urban district, did not have priority sector like agriculture and horticulture. But it had a large number of 600 slums with 2.1 lakh population living in them. Banks should not forget that they had a duty to serve people living below the poverty line, Mr. Veerabhadraiah said.

He expressed concern at the `slackening' of interest by banks in fulfilling the targets under the action plan during the past few years. This was perhaps due to compulsions of bankers about the non-priority areas. But it was surprising that when Government agencies were doing their best to create awareness among beneficiaries about the importance of repayment of loans and coming forward to help banks in recovery of loans, bankers were showing lukewarm response, the Collector remarked.

P. Annam Raju, Chief Manager, Lead Bank, asked bankers to reduce the time gap between the sanction of loans and their actual release. In some cases the delay was as long as one year. This should be reduced to one month. It would create an atmosphere of trust and improve the image of banks.

Riten Ghosh, Deputy General Manager, State Bank Of Hyderabad, asked bankers to motivate the field staff to improve performance level. Hyderabad was a notified minority district and banks should create more opportunities to minorities.

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Andhra Pradesh