Banks in J&K need to support unemployed youth financially: Chief Secretary

Srinagar, Oct 3: All the banks in association with line departments need to work in tandem to ensure J&K UT is at par with National Average in the parameters that define performance in the banking sector. We should strive hard for J&K to be ranked number one in the country.

This was stated by Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta while chairing the 11th meeting of Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee (UTLBC) held at SKICC, Srinagar here.

MD & CEO J&K Bank- Convenor J&K UTLBC- Baldev Prakash, Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development Prashant Goyal, Principal Secretary, Finance Santosh D. Vaidya,  various Administrative Secretaries, General Manager RBI, Sandeep Mittal, General Manager NABARD Sandeep Sharma and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, departmental Heads, insurance companies and Lead District Managers were present on the occasion.

While taking a review of the employment generation program Swarozgar Utsav- which the Chief Secretary launched during the 10th meeting of J&K UTLBC- Dr Mehta urged upon the banks to put in place a well-drilled mechanism for saturating self-employment in J&K.

“By generating employment through Swarozgar Utsav and other like campaigns we are doing a great service to our young generation, UT and the nation in general. Seeing the potential and requirement in J&K, there should be no reason not to achieve 100% targets set under this program,” he said.

J&K at the moment is doing exceptionally well in major sectors like Health, Rural Development but needs to do more to saturate self-employment, he said.

“Bringing unemployment down is our main motive. “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, he stated

This is where Banks in coordination with line departments have a huge role to play by creating employment generation opportunities for our youth. I hope the biggest takeaway from this meeting is that all of us pledge to contribute our bit to bring down unemployment,” he said.

Exhorting upon Banks and Revenue Department to put up a mechanism for greater lending under the SVAMITVA scheme Dr Mehta said,” SVAMITVA scheme was launched by Government of India with the aim to enable rural people to avail loans and other financial benefits against their property cards issued by Revenue Department. It is imperative for Banks to devise schemes and strategies in association with the Revenue Department to make the SVAMITVA scheme a success.”

He identified various areas like Pledge Financing for Agriculture Commodities through Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR), Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, Financing to FPOs by Banks, PM Weavers’ Mudra Yojana, Credit Card Scheme for Artisans and weavers of Handicrafts & Handlooms, Stand Up India & CD ratio where Banks need to improve their performance.

He emphasised that the Bank to create a future-ready financial ecosystem so that J&K keeps pace with ever ever-changing banking landscape across the globe.

Earlier in his welcome address, Baldev Prakash expressed gratitude to Chief Secretary for his consistent support and guidance to the forum through a number of well-founded initiatives to address and accelerate the resolutions for long pending issues associated with the forum. While assuring the J&K Government that banks operating in J&K UT will continue to extend all possible support for implementing the programmes and schemes aimed at entrepreneurial development, employment generation and poverty alleviation in the UT, he pointed out that the “Swarozgar Utsav” generated good response and banks have sanctioned loans of Rs.1,032 Crore to 55,756 beneficiaries till date. He stated that the campaign shall continue with full vigour so that the objective of saturating of self-employment is realized.”

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 quarter ended June 2023 of Financial year  2023-24 informed that banks in J&K have achieved 25% of the Annual Target under ACP by disbursing credit of Rs.12,721.04 Crore to 4,50,524 beneficiaries. It was also informed that banks have sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs.758.35 crore to 16,105 beneficiaries under major employment generation schemes during the period.

He informed that banks have onboarded 96% of Saving Bank accounts and 95% of Business accounts on digital platforms.