DHENKANAL : Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called for better implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes in Odisha.
Inaugurating the credit outreach programme at Pallishree Mela Ground here on Saturday, he said, the state is in the priority list of the Centre in terms of welfare programmes and the credit support has been enhanced three times in last one decade.
“Earlier, poor people were unable to reach banks and open their accounts. But now things have changed. The Modi government has given guarantee under which bank accounts in the name of poor people are being opened and they are given various financial assistance under several welfare schemes,” he said.
Referring to the biggest achievement of the Modi government, he said around 24.8 crore people of the country and about one crore people from the state have been freed from poverty and become self-reliant.
The poor people are being provided loans to make them self-reliant and resourceful, Pradhan said and highlighted many schemes of the Central government. In 2014, there were 4,338 bank branches in the state and now the number has gone up to 6,060. The banks have been made people-friendly, he said.
The minister also informed that under Jandhan Yojana, 2.1 crore bank accounts have been opened and there has been a deposit of Rs 4,000 crore in these accounts. “The loan amount has shot up to Rs 2.14 lakh crore from Rs 67,000 crore in the state,” he added. Pradhan distributed loans of Rs 2,289 crore to around 70,689 beneficiaries of Sambalpur and Deogarh districts and Rs 2,537 crore to 1,95,497 beneficiaries of Angul and Dhenkanal districts in separate programmes in the presence of Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary.
In Dhenkanal and Angul districts, banks have sanctioned Rs 541.91 crore against 11,724 accounts under retail segment and Rs 592.64 crore against 6,895 accounts under MSME besides Rs 1,286.71 crore against 1,67,384 accounts for agriculture.
“The financial support will boost the local economy and have a far-reaching impact including creation of job opportunities, expansion in business, emergence of new entrepreneurs and socio-economic development of the region,” said Chaudhary. MD and CEO of UCO Bank-cum-chairman of SLBC Odisha Ashwani Kumar, convenor of SLBC Goutam Patra and senior officials of NABARD and SIDBI were present.