Unseasonal rains which lashed Karnataka last week have badly-affected crop harvest and other agricultural activities in 14 districts, state chief secretary Sudhakar Rao told the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) meeting here on Tuesday. | |
| The worst-affected are the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Malnad districts of Kodagu, Chikmagalur and Shimoga and the plains Dharwad, Chitradurga and Bellary. |
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| Rao said, "Deputy commissioners in the affected districts have been instructed to convene special district consultative committee meeting early to assess the damage caused and identify the farmers in distress." |
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| He urged the commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and cooperative banks to instruct their branches to assist the district administration to provide relief by way of re-scheduling their loans. |
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| Earlier, chairing the SLBC meet, C P Swarnkar, chairman and managing director, Syndicate Bank, said according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) guidelines for implementing a package of relief measures for debt-stressed farmers in six districts affected in 2006, commercial banks, RRBs and cooperative banks have waived the interest overdue on agriculture loans amounting to Rs 636.27 crore. |
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| Of the Rs 636.27 crore, commercial banks share is Rs 443.48 crore, RRBs' share is Rs 79.18 crore and cooperative banks' share, Rs 113.61 crore. |
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| "The relative claims of reimbursement of interest waived have been submitted to the RBI and Nabard by the banks. I understand that Nabard has released the amount towards the Centre's share to RRBs and cooperative banks. Further, cooperative banks have already received the amount of share from the state government. I request the state government to release its 50 per cent share to the RBI and Nabard for further release to commercial banks and RRBs," he added. |
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| Reviewing the performance of banks, SLBC was told that banks have disbursed Rs 20,820 crore as on December 2007, as against the annual target of Rs 26,830 crore to support priority sector, thereby achieving the 78 per cent of the target for 2007-08. |
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| Under the primary sector, banks have disbursed Rs 11,170 crore, thereby attaining 69 per cent of the target up to December 2007. |
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| According to Swarnkar, disbursement to secondary and tertiary sectors was of the order of Rs 2,762 crore and Rs 6,883 crore respectively. |
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| While reviewing the performance of banks in other areas as of December 2007, he said, "The total deposits stood at Rs 151,897 crore and the level of advances was Rs 118,859 crore. The advance to priority sector was Rs 55,857 crore and advances for agriculture sector Rs 24,738 crore." |
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