HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Government's ambitious Rajiv Swagruha housing scheme is likely to run into rough weather what with banks stretching the funding from one to three years.

This became evident at the State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) where Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy unveiled the State Credit Plan of Rs. 42,000 crore for 2007-08 here on Friday. Several Ministers, top Government and bank officials attended.

The first indication came when SLBC president and Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank K. Ramakrishnan conveyed the difficulty faced by the banks to budget huge lending for housing and in taking up the entire programme, as proposed by the State Government, in a year.

He went on to request the Government to extend the programme to three years.

The Chief Minister said the scheme could be stretched to three years, but urged the banks to extend Rs. 5,000 crore every year.

Dr. Reddy said he was not happy with the banks' funding of Rs. 5,124 crore for women's self-help groups and wanted it to be raised to Rs. 7,000 crore.

Allied sectors

He also urged the bank officers to step up lending for cattle and sheep/goat-rearing, poultry and fisheries.

"Though we giving a push to agriculture, we are unable to achieve impressive growth," he said.

He spoke of the Government's plan to get best of the cattle from other States. Dr. Ramakarishnan said agriculture advances had been doubled in the last three years.

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