Antony asks banks to help farm sector

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 29. The Chief Minister, Mr. A. K. Antony, today requested the nationalised banks to initiate positive measures to help the farming sector overcome its current difficulties.

He made this request at a special meeting of the State Level Coordination Committee on Banking (SLCCB) convened by him to discuss the problems faced by the agricultural sector. He asked the banks to consider "re-phasing of loans, waiving of penal interest, re-fixing unit cost and scale of finance" for the farmers. He also wanted the banks to examine how new investments could be promoted in the farming sector.

He said the steep fall in the prices of Kerala's agricultural products had already started taking its toll on the economy of the State. This was bound to worsen in the current international situation. "We have to take immediate measures, both ameliorative and promotional, to get over the crisis" he said.

Mr. Antony said it was a good sign that the trust between the banks and the Government was growing. Banks had responded positively to the decisions of the SLCCB meeting held in July, particularly those related to setting up of a corpus fund and preparation of guidelines for lending to local Governments as well as new sectors like tourism and Information Technology. He requested the banks to complete these tasks by the end of November.

Mr. Antony told the meeting that he was rather disturbed by reports about certain technical and procedural hurdles hampering the smooth flow of lending to self-help groups. It appeared that these difficulties pertained to the interpretation of self-help groups. He asked the banks to understand the distinctive features of the network of neighbourhood groups under the Kudumbashree programme and adopt a positive attitude towards them. The objective of these self-help groups was empowerment of women, he added.

He said the Tenth Plan, now in the offing, would be a "reform plan with focus on institutions and laws, systems and procedures and attitudes and ways of doing things". He asked the banks to provide the Government with feedback and suggestions to help the formulation of the State plan.

He said the banks would have to play a major role in enabling the Government to realise its plan of bringing Rs. 50,000 crores of investments to the State in the next five years. "I promise that all the pending issues would be considered seriously and decisions on them taken promptly and communicated to you" he concluded.

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Section  : Southern States
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