ELURU: Rajiv Yuva Sakti programme, the brainchild of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, which is intended to help the jobless youths, seemingly loses vigour in West Godavari district, thanks to the rule-bound bankers and the indifferent official machinery. The sluggish progress of the scheme in the 2006-07 came up for a review at a meeting of the Standing Committee, comprising officials and bankers, here on Wednesday.

Mismatch

There appeared to be a lot of mismatch between the targets and the implementation of the programme in the last financial year. According to Anjaneyulu, Chief Executive Officer, Society of Employment and Training, West Godavari (SETWEL), Andhra Bank, which is the Lead Bank in the district, among others, is trailing behind in implementing the scheme.

Andhra Bank was supposed to have financed a little over 1,100 units in 2006-07 through its 85 branches, hardly half of them were grounded so for. Insistence by the Andhra Bank authorities on collateral security was the reason for the slow-pace of the scheme, the CEO said. As per the guidelines, the bankers shall finance up to Rs. 50,000 under Rajiv Yuva Sakti programme without insisting on collateral security.

Meanwhile, Nilmani Patil, Deputy General Manager, Andhra Bank, turned tables on the official machinery by saying that sanctioning was given to the non-serious applicants who were not able to provide collateral security in certain cases where the security was required.

He said the security was needed for the bankers when the unit cost was more than Rs 50,000.

The rising non-performing assets in the government-sponsored schemes became a point to ponder for the bankers.

The General Manager, District Industries Centre, said 33 cases were booked against the defaulters under the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana in the district.

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