JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today said that the UT government is committed to bringing down the unemployment in J&K to below 5%, and for this banks need to put a well-drilled mechanism for saturating the self- employment.
He made these comments while chairing the 9th Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee meeting in Jammu to review the achievements of banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir for the quarter ended December 2022.
Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Prashant Goyal, MD & CEO, J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Dr. A. K. Sood, General Manager RBI Neeraj Kumar and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, line departments, insurance companies and Lead District Managers were also present on the occasion.
An official spokesman said that in his opening remarks, CS, while applauding the efforts made by J&K Bank in providing coverage and credit to people under various employment generation schemes, urged other banks to follow the suit. He stated that employment generation is the major challenge the government is facing and it was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders to address the issue.
“Banks need to come forward and provide financial assistance to the unemployed youth who genuinely need it for achieving gainful employment. We need to show empathy towards the unemployed youth in guiding them towards the path of prosperity and self-sufficiency through various credit facilities tailored in accordance to their entrepreneurial aspirations,” the spokesman quoted CS as saying.
Mehta impressed upon the banks to improve the ease of availing banking facilities so that the common people do not shy away to come under the ambit of banking.
Earlier in his welcome address MD & CEO J&K Bank, Baldev Prakash assured J&K Government that banks operating in J&K will extend all possible support for implementing the programmes and schemes aimed at entrepreneurial development, employment generation, and poverty alleviation in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
While appreciating banks for 100% coverage of the unbanked villages by the opening of banking touch points under the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Programme the chief secretary impressed upon the banks to expedite the rollout of brick-and-mortar branches in remaining villages out of the10 identified with population over 3000.
While hailing J&K’s performance under PM SVANidhi, he impressed upon banks to expedite disbursal under second and third tranche to the eligible beneficiaries in a time-bound manner.”
Earlier General Manager J&K Bank, Syed Rais Maqbool while making a presentation on the financial achievements of various banks in different sectors during the first three quarters of the Financial year 2022-23 informed that banks in J&K have achieved 66% of the Target under Annual Credit Plan by disbursing credit of Rs.33,363.47 Crore to 10,69,626 beneficiaries.
It was informed that against the Annual Target to cover 30,410 beneficiaries, banks have sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs 1735.61 Crore to 42,354 beneficiaries under major employment generation schemes during the current financial year.
He informed that under the ‘Back To Village’ and ‘My Town My Pride’ programmes of J&K Government banks have sourced 66,883 applications of which 58,446 applications have been sanctioned and an amount of Rs.1099.88 Crore has been disbursed.
