Odisha Nabard tops in financial aid disbursement

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha region of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has topped in the country by disbursing highest financial assistance of Rs 17,195 crore in the last fiscal. While the financing institution has provided Rs 7,930.67 crore to Cooperative Banks for crop loans and Rs 4,585.38 crore to Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC) for paddy procurement, Rs 2,512.36 crore under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and Rs 1,044.65 crore under Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF).

Chief General Manager (CGM) of Nabard KC Panigrahi said developmental financial assistance to the State which was Rs 8,368 crore during 2015-16, has been doubled in the last couple of years. “Odisha has been one of the biggest beneficiaries under RIDF which extends financial support for critical rural infrastructure projects in sectors like irrigation, roads and bridges,” he said.

Among the major infrastructure projects, Nabard has sanctioned about Rs 1,500 crore for construction of 14 mega- l i f t irrigation projects, Rs 220 crore towards construction of 612 community- based Lift Irrigation projects, Rs 128 crore for one bridge over Mahanadi river in Cuttack district, Rs 217 crore for 17 flood protection projects and Rs 166 crore for 175 rural drinking water supply schemes. Cumulatively, the national bank has extended financial assistance of about Rs 15,000 crore to the State under RIDF, which has resulted in bringing in an estimated 23 lakh ha of area under irrigation and construction of roads and bridges of about 10,000 km and about 1.15 lakh metre, respectively.

During 2017-18, Nabard has extended financial assistance of Rs 18.24 crore under Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF ) for construction of storage godowns in Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS). With an objective of doubling farmers’ income in next five years, a pilot project - Krushak Samridhi has been launched in seven villages of Nischintakoili block in Cuttack district envisaging an outlay of Rs 14 crore.”Nabard has identified certain major focus areas for the current fiscal. One major focus area is supporting irrigation facilities in the State in addition to RIDF. While augmenting resource support to the banks, we are planing to gear up initiatives for enhancement of credit flow in the State, with emphasis on disbursement of agricultural term loans,” Panigrahi added.