Nabard to waive off loans to weavers

All Uttarakhand weavers? loans up to Rs 50,000 to be waived off

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), on Tuesday, announced plans to waive off loans to weavers in Uttarakhand where it increased its loan disbursement by 30 per cent to Rs 906.35 crore.

Nabard’s chief general manger (CJM) S Selvaraj said the bank has entered into an agreement with the state government to waive off all weavers’ loans up to Rs 50,000.

“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was singed between Nabard and the government of Uttarakhand for implementation of this package for revival and restructuring of handloom weavers’ structure in the state,” Selvaraj said.

Stating that Nabard has come a long way in ushering an all round development in the hill state, he said Nabard disbursed Rs 906.35 crore in the form of loans to the state government and refinance to banks during 2011-12 as against Rs 695.23 crore during 2010-11, with an increase of 30 per cent.

In the rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF), Nabard released Rs 350 crore to Uttarakhand during 2011-12. At the same time, 568 rural infrastructure projects amounting to Rs 481.45 crore were also sanctioned, he said. Some of the important sectors under which the projects have been sanctioned include rural roads (210 projects), minor irrigation (350 projects), rural bridge construction (18 projects), canal roads (four projects) and mini hydel (one project). When completed, 1,000 km of road length will be constructed, widened and renovated. A total of 30,420 hectares of crop command area is expected to be brought under irrigation, Selvaraj said.

So far cumulatively, Nabard, beginning RIDF Tranche VIII (2001-03) till RIDF Tranche XVII (2011-12), has sanctioned 3,749 projects with a total financial outlay of Rs 3,466.08 crore and RIDF loan of Rs 2,843.08 crore.