Nabard credit support to Chhattisgarh touches Rs 2,816 cr

Financial assistance for agriculture and rural development in 2015-16 had been significantly less

The credit support by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to Chhattisgarh touched Rs 2816.80 crore during the year 2015-16.  

The financial assistance of the bank for the agriculture and rural development in 2015-16 had been significantly less as compared to the credit support extended by the Nabard in 2014-15. In the previous year, the bank provided a credit support of over Rs 4,700 crore to Chhattisgarh.

"In 2015-16, Nabard provided Rs 500 crore to the Marketing Federation (MarkFed) under the credit facility for federations (CFF) for paddy procurement for the Kharif Marketing Scheme (KMS) 2015-16 as against Rs 2,000 crore provided in 2014-15," P J Ranjith, Chief General Manager of Nabard's Chhattisgarh region said.

Since the assistance to MarkFed was reduced, the credit support also came down, he added. Ranjith said sanctions to state government under rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) amounted to Rs 817.39 crore during 2015-16 while Rs 631.72 crore was released for various RIDF projects during the year.

"The implementation of these projects will ensure better connectivity for 846 villages with total road length of 685.61 km covering population of 544,000 besides generating 142,830 man days of non-recurring employment," he added.

During the year 2015-16, Nabard Consultancy Services (NABCONS) recorded an increase of over five folds in its business in Chhattisgarh. Ranjith said NABCONS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nabard contracted business of Rs 5.96 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs 1.17 crore last year. 

Nabard provided Rs 1,329.28 crore as refinance to banks during 2015-16, of which Rs 1115.00 crore and Rs 214.28 crore was disbursed for production and investment credit respectively.

The bank launched Women SHG programme in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts in 2012-13. The move was aimed to promote and nurture WSHGs in 14 LWE affected districts. As on March 31, 2016, Nabard had sanctioned projects to 29 NGOs for promotion and nurturing of 11,685 WSHGs with a grant support of Rs 11.685 crore.