Amit Shah asks Nabard to fix financing targets for farm sector for next 25 years

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Nabard to fix targets for financing agriculture sector and rural development for the next 25 years when India will complete 100 years of Independence as he revealed how a letter written by a woman rural dairy farmer led to the dawning of the idea of 'Cooperation Among Cooperatives', being toyed with by the government. Addressing the 42nd Foundation Day of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), the minister said, «Today district cooperative banks have started issuing Rupay Kisan Credit Cards to farmers. This all began with a letter written by a poor rural woman in the Banaskandha district.

She wrote to me that they sell milk to dairies for which they get paid every Saturday. But if they need money prior to that they have to get loans through credit cards issued by private banks at the interest rate of 30%.» Shah further added, «This made us rethink everything from the beginning which has led us to the new initiative called 'Cooperation Among Cooperatives'. The initiative has not been declared till now.

Under this new scheme, we have identified two districts Banaskantha and Panchmahal in Gujarat in which district cooperative banks will issue credit cards to the members of cooperative societies. And all the cooperative societies have been designated as Bank Mitras.» The minister elaborated, «This will help the members avail loans at 2% to 3% interest rates. As a result, new 5 lakh new savings accounts have been opened.

To serve them 2,038 micro-ATMs will be opened. There has been an increase of ₹2,000 crore in low-cost deposits in the two district cooperative banks. This scheme will ensure that the cooperative sectors money will remain with the sector itself and no one will have to spend money for