The Hindu : Business : Kerala all set to achieve total banking State status by June

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 10, 2007
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Business

Business

Kerala all set to achieve total banking State status by June

Staff Reporter

To implement relief package for farmers in Wayanad and Kasaragod districts

SEEKING FULL COOPERATION: Alok K. Misra, Executive Director, Canara Bank, speaking at the 91st meeting of the state-level Bankers' Committee in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is all set to achieve the status of a total banking State by June 2007. The action plan to achieve this feat was chalked out by the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC), which met here on Friday. Alok K. Misra, Executive Director, Canara Bank, who chaired the meeting, said that this would mean that every household in the State would have at least one bank account and would be eligible for a general-purpose loan up to Rs.25,000. He further stated that the CD ratio of the State had reached 68.21 per cent, an increase of 25 per centage points over March 2001.

N. Krishna Mohan, Regional Director, RBI, said that Palakkad district had become the first district in the country to achieve cent per cent financial inclusion.

The meeting decided to fully implement the relief package to farmers in Wayanad, Palakkad and Kasaragod districts by March 2007. Already, 30 per cent of total interest on farm loans to be waived had been completed by the banks. Further, 27 per cent of the agriculture loans had been rescheduled as at December 2006.

The meeting appealed to the farmers in the districts to extend full cooperation to banks in fully implementing the package. The meeting directed all banks to ensure that agriculture sector in the State would be given loans to the tune of Rs.9,645 crore during the year 2006-2007. It also resolved to form a working group to finalise the action plan for credit flow to agriculture sector during the 11th plan. The banks in the State would assist the Government programme for production of school uniforms made of handloom.

Loans written off

The meeting was informed that commercial banks in the State had written off loans to all farmers who had committed suicide as decided at the previous meeting. Loans of 240 farmers with liability of Rs.88 lakhs had been written off. The meeting appealed to government to reimburse the individual liabilities above Rs.1 lakh as promised. The Cooperative Banks have also written off loans to farmers who have committed suicide. By March 2007, all the eligible farmers in the state would be given Kisan Credit Cards. So far, banks had sanctioned 21 lakh Kisan Credit Cards in the State.

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