PULWAMA: To bridge the gap be-tween banking institutions and farm-ing community, the Deputy Commis-sioner (DC) Pulwama, Dr. Basharat Qayoom on Saturday presided over Bankers Seminar for Credit in Agri-culture and allied sectors at Circuit House, Pulwama here.
During the programme, a detailed discussion was held through a pow-erpoint presentation delivered by DDM NABARD, Junaid Hakeem on various issues including identifica-tion of beneficiaries, flow of credit for farmers under Holistic Development Agriculture Programme (HADP), assistance under Government spon-sored schemes (CSS), performances of banks under District Credit Plan (DCP), monitoring initiatives and credit plus activities. The event was also attended by Director, Animal Husbandry Department Kashmir Srinagar, Purnima Mital who was representing the visiting officer for Seminar. Speaking on the occasion, DC di-rected the bank officials and admin-istrative officers for coordination at district level for effective implemen-tation of HADP and 100 percent saturation of benefits under Kisan Credit Card and other Central Schemes of Agriculture and allied sectors.
He reiterated that for achieving the de-sired targets under the said sector, the bankers have an important role to play by providing hassle free credit to the farmers. The DC directed for ensuring FPOs are transformed into engines of growth and districts must compete to script success stories of such organizations. Dr Basharat sought valuable in-puts from the bank officials and impressed upon them to encourage other stakeholders to complement the government efforts in improving accessibility of farmers to the instal-lation sources of credit and further strengthening the agriculture and al-lied sector. The officers of banks were directed to simplify and streamline the processes of extending credit and financial assistance services to the farmers. To facilitate and uplift poor farm-ers with credit linking schemes, the DC impressed upon the bank-ers to put in added efforts to make ease in credit facilities for the farm-ers by focusing on potential areas and stressed on better coordination between banks and Government departments. Booklets containing necessary information for all credit schemes meant for holistic devel-opment of agriculture and allied sectors were also distributed to the bankers for their ready reference.