Kerala - Kannur   

Banks to help the rain-affected

KANNUR: Banks in the district have chalked out relief measures for farmers and small business people affected by the summer rain.

A special meeting of the District Consultative Committee held here on Thursday decided to re-phase the existing loans, convert short-term loans to long-term ones on the same rate of interest, re-new the loans with interest which were not overdue and to sanction new loans to farmers who had been affected by the rain.

A press release issued by Lead District Manager U.P. Narayanan here on Friday said the special meeting chaired by District Collector Ishita Roy was attended by heads of all government departments and district co-ordinators of all banks. The Tahsildars of Kannur, Taliparamba and Thalassery taluks and officials of Agriculture, Minor Irrigation, Dairy Development Departments, Kerala State Electricity Board, Serifed and District Industries Centre presented details on the damages caused in the district.

The release said the meeting also decided not to charge overdue interest as per the Reserve Bank of India instructions and to grant fresh loans to eligible people. These decisions were also applicable to all other priority sector borrowers also, the release said. It was also decided to grant housing loans for repairs/renovations of the houses damaged in the natural calamities, it said.

The meeting also decided to refer suggestions to grant interest-free loans to the affected farmers. The Collector appealed to the banks to introduce schemes foreseeing such natural calamities in future. Banks were also directed to introduce appropriate schemes considering the extent of damages in their command area. She told the banks to conduct camps wherever required with the active involvement of grama panchayats, Revenue/Agriculture Departments for helping the people who were affected by the rain.

Syndicate Bank Assistant General Manager K.P. Muralidharan, NABARD AGM P.A. Prem Kumar, State Bank of Travancore AGM C.V. Prasad, Principal Agricultural Officer V. Suresh, North Malabar Gramin Bank Area Manager K. Janardhanan and Deputy General Manager of the District Cooperative Bank C.P. Balakrishnan were present at the meeting.

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