Banks in Gujarat will meet farm credit target, says Dena chief

Banks in the state are confident of surpassing the target of disbursement of Rs 6,091 crore as agriculture credit for the year 2004-05, said Dena Bank chairman and managing director M V Nair. Dena Bank is the convenor of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) for Gujarat.

Presiding over the SLBC, Nair, who holds the additional charge of CMD of Dena Bank, said that as per data available with the SLBC banks of Gujarat, a disbursement of agriculture credit to the tune of Rs 5726.10 crore has been made until February, 2005, depicting a 94.01 per cent of the target. According to new central government guidelines, agriculture credit should be doubled in three years.

Nair further added that under implementation of the government announcement of farm credit package, banks in the state are gearing up to plan out a fresh disbursement of around Rs 3000 crore in the coming financial year 2005-06.

It was also decided at the SLBC meeting that each bank operating in Gujarat would set up institutes on the lines of Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institutes (RUDSETI) in their respective lead districts.

Nair stated that there has been a robust growth of 10.74 per cent in credit expansion during the third quarter of the current fiscal and the deposit growth of the banking system has crossed a milestone of Rs one lakh crore as of December 2004.