Panel asks banks to ease norms on loans to urban poor

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development today advised the banks to relax norms for loans under Rajiv Rinn Yojna, which aims at providing interest subsidy to poor persons in urban areas to construct or buy a house.

During their visit throughout the country, the committee found that several public sector undertaking (PSU) banks across the country are demanding mortgages equivalent to the loan amount. As a result, many people are unable to avail loans under the scheme.

"You can always take the house bought by the person as mortgage instead of asking for farm land titles. I am sure, the banks can come up with a way to tweak the mortgage norm, otherwise the aim of providing house to all citizens by 2022 will remain futile," said Pinaki Mishra, head of the standing committee and BJD MP from Puri.

Both the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha and the Central government have promised pucca houses for all before 2022. Mishra, who was visiting the state heading a team of MPs from different parties, discussed with representatives of two banks regarding the lending facility provided by them for creation of infrastructure and self-employment opportunities.

The MPs also reviewed the performance of the banks under schemes such as Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rozgar Yojna or National Urban Livelihood Mission, Prime Minister Employment Generation Program and Rajiv Rinn Yojna. However, the benefits of these schemes did not reach maximum population as large parts of the country are still unbanked, noted the committee.

The panel members said, the schemes for upliftment of the poor will never get implemented completely among targeted section of the population if there is limited banking facility. The banks must propagate the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) to attract large number of people to open accounts with some deposits.

"I am sorry to say that more than 80 per cent of around 8 crore accounts opened under PMJDY have zero balance, which means many are still unaware about the benefits of the scheme. Banks must engage strong marketing tools to propagate the benefits of opening accounts with as little money as possible to avail the facilities associated with the scheme," Mishra pointed out.

Bankers present at the discussion said, they will take steps to open more bank accounts and will come up with policies to provide hassle free lending facility for urban poor to buy or construct houses.