Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is going to convene a meeting of the State Level Bankers’ Sub-Committee meeting on MSME sector sometime during middle of October 2017 to discuss with the regional heads of public sector banks about the poor performance of some of the public sector banks in Odisha in sanctioning and disbursing margin money under Prime Minister Employment Guarantee Programme (PMEGP).
A review meeting held under the chairmanship of MSME additional chief secretary, LN Gupta, at Directorate of Export Promotion & Marketing (DEPM), here on Wednesday, was told that while the performance of the Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank and UCO Banks during the current financial year was found satisfactory, the performance of SBI, PNB, Union Bank of India, and United Bank of India was not found upto the mark.
Addressing the meeting, Gupta urged all the leading banks to expedite sanction and disbursement of margin money assistance to the pending PMEGP applicants with a special focus to the applicants belonging to ST/SC/Women and Physically Handicappted category. He stated that separate allocation of Rs.946 lakhs to the SC applicants and Rs.1975 lakh for ST applicants is available for margin money assistance. He added that the bankers should achieve the current year’s target under PMEGP by the end of November, so that the government of India can be asked to enhance the target for the state.
The Khadi Village Industries Commission director told the meeting that during the first six months of 2017-18, total 774 beneficiaries have been extended with margin money assistance of Rs.22.45 crores, which is more than 50% of the margin money assistance target assigned to the state. During the current year, the government of India has allotted margin money of Rs.44.62 crore to the state. During the year, total 2250 beneficiaries are likely to be assisted. The director informed that during 2016-17, altogether, 2890 beneficiaries have been extended margin money assistance of approximately Rs.83 crores, which is 115% of the target assigned to the State Govt. These projects have resulted in employment generation to 20,392 persons.
