Nabard open to Odisha's demand for Rs 1337 cr

National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard) has struck a note of optimism on the Odisha government’s demand of sanction of additional Rs 1,337 crore under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for 2014-15.

“The Odisha government has urged us for an additional allocation of Rs 1,300 crore under RIDF for this fiscal. We are open to the state government’s demand and will consider it,” said Nabard chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala.

Bhanwala called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik and chief secretary G C Pati today. He said Nabard has sanctioned Rs 1,330 crore for the state in this fiscal of which Rs 600 crore has been disbursed. The state’s demand for an additional Rs 1,337 crore includes Rs 500 crore for bridges, Rs 200 crore each for road projects and borewells and the rest for irrigation projects. The chief minister also urged the Nabard chief to approve an additional Rs 752 crore for piped water project in Nuapada district.

It may be noted that the refinance support from Nabard to the cooperatives and regional rural banks (RRBs) in Odisha for providing production loans to small and marginal farmers, has reached an all-time high of Rs 4,225 crore in 2013-14. During the current financial year, Nabard has already extended an amount of Rs 3,120 crore to these agencies by the end of December 2014 so that subsidised short term credit is extended to small and marginal farmers.

Cumulatively, Nabard has, so far, disbursed Rs 2,821 crore as long-term refinance support to banks to support capital formation in agriculture and allied activities in the state. Odisha has been one of the largest beneficiaries of RIDF and cumulative RIDF support, extended to the state over the years has crossed Rs 1O,698 crore by the end of December 2014 involving around 0.2 million rural infrastructure projects under road, bridge, irrigation, flood protection and drainage sectors. Projects worth Rs 1,055 crore have been sanctioned during 2013-14.