Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday said that the cooperative sector plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of farmers by providing necessary impetus to their agricultural operations through credit inputs and marking support.
The induction of new Managers and System professionals will enable the cooperative banks to have quality manpower at the front office and infuse professionalism in their functioning, he said at a program where as many as 240 Assistant Managers and 26 System Managers were inducted into the cooperative banks here. Secretary to CM V K Pandian moderated the Program.
Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Minister Co-operation, Sanjeev Chadha, Principal Secretary Co-operation and others graced the occasion.
“The farmers will benefit from this by way of better service delivery under financial inclusion and credit dispensation, he said and added, “Small and marginal farmers constitute over 90 percent of our population.”
He further said that the Co-operative Banks and Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) provide around 60 per cent of the total crop loans disbursed in the state.
Almost the entire paddy procurement operations and procurement of other agricultural produce are done by these PACS, he added.
In recognition of the potential in service delivery to the people, the CM said that the State Government has been giving emphasis on the strengthening of their human resources and technology up-gradation.
Core banking solutions and computerized operations of PACS have been included as important 5T interventions of the state, he added.
He further said that the Government has been providing share capital assistance to the Co-operative Banks and PACS in order to strengthen their capital base and added that the Government is also providing interest subvention support to help them provide crop loans to farmers at a marginal rate of interest.
“In order to facilitate the small and marginal farmers, my Government has made interest-free crop loans up to Rupees one lakh,” he added.
Emphasizing that 2158 PACS have gone online with Core Banking System facilities, he said, this will bring about efficient, expeditious and transparent service delivery by the PACS in the field of banking, credit and other operations.
“Online operation of PACS in Odisha on the CBS platform is the first of its kind in the entire country, ” he asserted.
