Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Shushil Kumar Modi has urged state cooperative banks to raise their loan limit to farmers to Rs. three hundred thousand from the existing Rs. fifty thousand.
Mr. Modi made this suggestion while addressing a review meeting of the state cooperative banks in Patna.
The govt. has also announced that it would use the financially fit PACS for distribution of kisan credit card and refund of loan in a few districts of the state to find out if it could work successfully. The PACS would get one percent commission for doing this work, official sources said.
Several top govt. officials including Principal Secretary coop dept., Managing Director Nabard and Chairman state coop. banks attended the review meeting.
Disbursement of loans and distribution of kisan cards by coop. banks came in for criticism in the discussions during the meeting. The cooperative banks have had a miserable performance on both counts, according to govt. sources.
However, the Deputy Chief Minister expressed his hope that the state coop banks would improve their performance and meet the reduced target of Rs. 800 crore loan this fiscal.
