BHUBANESWAR: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s Regional Office has assured to ensure adequate supply of currencies to District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) on a daily basis to meet crop loan requirement.
Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, who reviewed the liquidity of the DCCBs at a meeting here, advised the apex bank officials to supply more currency to the banks. It was decided that RBI would supply around Rs 65 crore to Rs 70 crore to DCCBs daily to meet farmers’ need for crop loan, paddy procurement proceeds as well as crop insurance claims.
Balakrishnan also said a WhatsApp group would be created involving senior officers from RBI, SBI, State Cooperative Bank, Principal Secretary, Cooperation and Director, Institutional Finance to oversee real-time monitoring and resolution of ground level situation about availability of currency in the banks.
It was revealed at the meeting that DCCBs advance major portion of the crop loan to farmers. In Odisha, the DCCBs advance about 65 per cent of crop loans against the national average of 16 per cent. This year, target has been fixed to advance Rs 5,000 crore crop loan to farmers during the current rabi season. In addition, another Rs 1,776 crore has already been disbursed through cooperative banks towards insurance claim of kharif crop. This apart, around Rs 100 crore is being disbursed daily to farmers’ accounts towards paddy procurement proceeds.
Supply of another Rs 65 crore to Rs 70 crore per day to the DCCBs, as assured by RBI, would cater to the immediate needs of farmers. The meeting also took stock of the deposit of money in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts. Since some accounts opened under scheme were not fully KYC compliant, more than Rs 50,000 could not be deposited due to which farmers faced problems. It was decided in the meeting that Aadhaar card issued to farmers would be used as the KYC. The farmers would have to produce their cards in this regard at the earliest.
In Odisha, about 93 per cent of the adult population have been supplied Aadhaar number as registration centres have been made operational at the tehsil level. Since, Aadhaar registration campaign is underway in all districts in full swing, farmers can get themselves registered in the nearest camp or Aadhaar registration centre. Director, Institutional, Finance Tapan Kumar Pradhan, General Manager, RBI SP Mohanty, Managing Director and State Central Cooperative Bank Tushar Kanta Panda were also present.