Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekar has taken officials of the district credit cooperative (DCC) banks to task for sanctioning loans to sugar factories located outside the Bengaluru division and instructed them to give priority for lending short- and medium-term loans to farmers.
Irked over a huge amount of lending to sugar factories by DCC banks of Bengaluru division, Mr. Somashekar asked officials to refrain from lending to factories outside their jurisdiction.
The Minister reviewed lending operations of DCC banks of the Bengaluru division and said ₹14,500 crore would be disbursed in the form of small- and medium-term loans to farmers during 2020-21.
He instructed officials to activate defunct Kisan Credit Cards to ensure lending to small farmers during the coming kharif season.
Till now, a sum of ₹916 crore had been disbursed to 1,35,977 farmers of nine districts in the Bengaluru division, he said. A sum of ₹712 crore was given as loan to farmers in the division in 2019-20.
