Bhubanneswar: The State Government has initiated steps for extending agricultural credit to landless cultivators in a hassle-free manner.
A high-level meeting in this regard was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy on Thursday where different aspects of the proposal made in collaboration with the NABARD were discussed.
It was decided that IMAGE and ATMA would be the nodal agencies at the State and district levels, respectively. It was also decided to incentivise Krushak Sathis and VAWs through ATMA for formation of JLGs, linking them to the banks, mobilising disbursal of credit and facilitating repayment of the loan.
Each bank would finance at least 10 JLGs in a year. There are around 7,000 branches of different banks and PACS in rural and semi-urban areas. Each JLG would have five members. Each group could be extended loan up to Rs 1.60 lakh. It was decided to cover around 7 lakh landless cultivators through 1.40 lakh JLGs in two years. The credit would be available as normal crop loan. The rate of interest and interest subvention would be as per the existing Government norms.
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