FPJ Political Bureau / Mumbai
To augment the resources of Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to enable them to extend credit to farmers for taking up pre-monsoon and kharif 2020 operations, the National Ban for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended Rs20,500 crore. Of the total Rs 20,500 crore, NABARD has extended Rs15,200 crore to Cooperative Banks and the balance of Rs5,300 crore to RRBs as special liquidity facility in various states. The fund is given as a means of front loading the resources of these banks so as to ensure adequate liquidity with them for financing farmers. This is against Rs5,000 crore lent during the first quarter of the last year.
The banks have also initiated a programme of Saturation of KCC cards and about 12 lakh new KCC cards have been issued by Cooperative banks and RRBs during the last two months. Notably, a total of 4.2 crore KCCs have been issued by Cooperative banks and RRBs as on March 31, 2020.
There are 33 State Cooperative Banks, 352 District Central Cooperative Banks and 43 RRBs in the country through which the money is financed to the farmers.
