Rajasthan Nabard has extended a total credit support of Rs 14690 crore for the development of agricultural and rural economy in Rajasthan during 2017-18, claimed its CGM A K Singh in a press conference in Jaipur on Tuesday.
The credit was extended to the State Government, Banks, State PSUs and Corporations through its financial interventions. Singh said “financing a variety of rural infrastructure projects has emerged as one of the most dominant themes of rural India’s growth and NABARD has defined its role as an important stakeholder in the infra financing sector in rural India through its various funds.
Rajasthan has been one of the biggest beneficiaries under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of NABARD, under which NABARD disbursed concessional loan of Rs 1851.29 crore to the Govt. of Rajasthan during 2017-18.
Among the major infrastructure projects, NABARD sanctioned Rs 437.95 crore for completion of 10 irrigation projects, Rs 599.84 crore for the construction of 1614 rural roads, Rs 469.54 crore for two rural drinking water supply projects, Rs 112.46 crore towards revamping of the canal system in Kota, Baran and Bundi, and Rs 209.72 crore for the construction and strengthening of 825 schools.
Cumulatively, NABARD has sanctioned a financial assistance of Rs 21,226 crore to the Govt. of Rajasthan under RIDF, which has resulted in bringing in an estimated 2 lakh Ha of area under irrigation and construction of roads/ bridges having length of about 86,000 KMs.
“During 2017-18, NABARD sanctioned a financial assistance of Rs 196.32 crore to the Govt. of Rajasthan as State Share towards completion of Narmada Canal Project under a dedicated fund, called Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) and also released Rs 101.45 crore to the State Govt. under LTIF. NABARD has sanctioned ` 104.06 crore to the State Govt. for creation of scientific storage facilities under Warehousing Infrastructure Fund (WIF)” said the CGM.
CGM A K Singh said “as far as refinance support to the banks is concerned, NABARD provided a financial assistance of Rs 12240 crore as refinance for supplementing the financial resources of banks in Rajasthan during 2017-18.
NABARD followed up on the agenda of establishing many Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs) during the year. Under GOI’s PRODUCE Fund, 143 FPOs have been sanctioned cumulatively for Rajasthan, of which 143 FPOs were registered up to 31 March 2018. NABARD has projected a credit flow of Rs 1.84 lakh crore under the priority sector during 2018-19” A K Singh Said.
The CGM expected minimum 15% growth in the financial assistance to be provided by NABARD to Rajasthan in the ensuing financial year 2018-19 for the development of rural economy as various new funds are set to be operationalized by NABARD namely Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF), Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF), Incentivization Scheme for Bridging Irrigation Gap (ISBIG), Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF), Fisheries & Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF), etc.
