CS directs banks to promote business to boost economic growth

Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta presenting a cheque to a beneficiary in Jammu on Tuesday.
Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta presenting a cheque to a beneficiary in Jammu on Tuesday.

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 30: The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired the 5th UT-Level Bankers’ Committee meeting and reviewed achievements of banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir for the half year ended September 2021.
Financial Commissioner Finance, Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary, Rural Development Department & Panchayati Raj, Bipul Pathak Principal Secretary, HUDD, Dheeraj Gupta, Chairman & MD J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) R K Chhibber, Director, DFS, MoF (GoI) A.K. Dogra, CGM In-Charge (FIDD), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Sonali Sen Gupta,  Chief General Manager NABARD, A. K. Sood and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, LDMs, line departments, insurance companies, BSNL were also present on the occasion.
In his opening remarks, the Chief Secretary, Dr.Arun Kumar Mehta impressed upon the banks and Financial Institutions to increase their business to boost economic growth in J&K.
Reiterating the directions issued by Finance Minister, Dr Mehta directed the Public Sector Banks to expand their foot print besides scaling up the credit lending in J&K.
He also directed the Public Sector Banks to initiate measures to bring in more Non Banking Financial Corporations (NBFCs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) having business relations with them to J&K. The PSBs were directed to prepare the plan in this regard by 31st December 2021.
The Chief Secretary asked NABARD to prepare roadmap for utilization pipeline under all schemes and prepare projects for better utilization by 31st December. 2021.
While announcing that agricultural and industrial products for each district have been identified by J&K Government, the Chief Secretary directed Punjab National Bank to take lead in preparing the Plan under One District One Product (ODOP) programme by 15th December 2021 in respect of the products already identified by Government.
In order to improve the lending under Government Sponsored Schemes/ Employment Generation Schemes, the Chief Secretary directed the Information Technology Department to develop online portals by 31st December 2021 for various schemes for online submission of applications on the pattern of the existing PMEGP Portal.
Dr Mehta laid emphasis on end to end digitisation of all beneficiary oriented schemes in J&K and asked the concerned departments and banks to synergize their processes for early results.
While directing banks to clear the backlog of Government sponsored cases, he also directed the sponsoring agencies to scale up sponsorship under the respective schemes in line with the prescribed targets.
Meanwhile, Jammu district administration organized C-DYTE Border Youth Festival-2021 at BSF Ground Paloura.
Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, was the chief guest on the occasion.
Divisional Commissioner, Raghav Langer, ADGP, Jammu, Mukesh Singh, IG, BSF DK Boora, DIG BSF Sudhir Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Anshul Garg besides senior district officers from concerned departments were present during the event.
Chief Secretary motivated the young generation to participate in sports and extracurricular activities and stressed on the need to create bigger platforms for young sportsmen to display their talent. He said that J&K administration is committed to channelize energy of youth in a positive direction by generating enhanced opportunities for them, whether it is sports, studies, self-employment, entrepreneurship etc.
Earlier, Deputy Commissioner, Anshul Garg, apprised the Chief Secretary that Centre for District Youth Training and Empowerment C-DYTE, Jammu, is one of the initiatives of Jammu administration in collaboration with Department of Mission Youth towards empowerment of young minds by providing them trainings at their door steps.
C-DYTE Suchetgarh was adjudged as overall champion of C-DYTE athletic meet-2021.