Bankers to focus on ‘aspirational’ dists

Majority of districts of Jharkhand figuring in the list of 115 aspirational districts identified all over the country have put the onus on banking fraternity directing their resources towards their development. As many as five schemes have been marked to be taken on priority basis.

The exercise having taken up some time back that included mostly leftwing extremist affected districts besides poorly developed areas, have included 19 from Jharkhand out of 24.

“Special drive would be conducted in the aspirational districts of Jharkhand from May 26. The bankers of the State have been told to pay special attention in order to get maximum result out of seeding of Aadhaar data, Mudra loan disbursement, PMGSY, PMAY and spreading coverage under banking outlets and services. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has also outlined five key parameters based on that assessments would be done,” said a senior official on the sidelines of 63 State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting on Tuesday.

Notably, the State Government has held a series of meetings in recent times with concerned DCs coming from backward districts at the behest of Niti Ayog while Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Jharkhand visit is also likely to take stock of the situation there along with outcomes of the premier developmental schemes.

This apart, during the meeting advances made to agriculturists of the State came for special mention. “It is baffling to note that despite the proposal from the Centre and State Governments to avail farm loan at just one per cent interest payable if the farmer pays it back within one year, none has been benefited in Jharkhand. The State, on its part, has made a provision of Rs 40 crore for that. If there is any confusion, we have to sort it out and encourage farmers to avail the opportunity,” said Agriculture Director Ramesh Gholap addressing the bankers.

As per the figures for 2017-18, total advances to the farm sector have been only 48.9% or Rs 3757 crore against the target of Rs 7682.37 crore set. Nevertheless the banks of the State have been able to not only touch the national level bench mark set for credit-deposit ratio, i.e. 60% but for the first time even managed to cross it by 0.31% for the quarter ended on March 31 this year.

SLBC, at the same time, expressed concern on the front of accumulating non-performing assets (NPA). Gross NPA has gone up to Rs 5223.27 crore or 6.10% of total advances against 5.58% one year back on March 31, 2017. Net NPA nonetheless has seen a decline in percentage terms from 3.36% to 2.84% during the same period and has been recorded at Rs 2432.73 crore at present.