ITANAGAR, 29 Nov: Kisan credit cards (KCC) for fish farmers will be given impetus in a mission mode in all districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Fisheries Commissioner Saugat Biswas said during a meeting with all the deputy commissioners and district fisheries officers here on Tuesday.
“District-wise evaluation of the progress made under the scheme during the current financial year was done during the meeting, which was held under the umbrella of the ongoing nationwide KCC campaign, spanning from 1 May, 2023 to 31 March, 2024, and the special ‘Ghar-Ghar KCC Abhiyan’ will be active from 1 October to 31 December, 2023,” the fisheries department informed in a release.
The Centre in 2018-’19 extended KCC facility to fish farmers to help them meet their working capital requirements. Bank authorities have been instructed to issue KCCs within 14 days of receipt of the completed applications from the fish farmers. Under the scheme for the existing KCC holders, the benefits of interest subvention and prompt repayment incentive will be admissible up to the credit limit of Rs 3 lakhs, including fisheries activities, it said.
“In the case of new card holders, the credit limit is Rs 2 lakhs to meet their working capital requirements for fisheries activities,” it said, and added that “in the KCC scheme @7% is the lending rate to farmers, including @2% interest subvention per annum. Also, another @3% per annum is provided in case of prompt repayment as an additional incentive as per the existing guidelines.”
“This implies that the farmers repaying promptly as above would get a loan @4% per annum effectively for loan amount upto Rs 2 lakhs,” the department said.
Biswas highlighted the need for “an accelerated pace of progress,” and urged the DCs and other stakeholders to redouble their efforts to achieve the saturation of all eligible fishers and fish farmers in alignment with district-wise targets.
He also urged the DCs to “conduct separate meetings with the branch managers of all banks, the lead district managers, and the district fishery development officers.”
This effort aims to streamline the KCC-Fisheries saturation process, clear any pending KCC applications within a week, and conduct awareness programmes at the village and block levels. These initiatives are designed to create awareness among fish farmers and fishers, and to encourage them to apply for KCC-Fisheries loan applications during the ongoing nationwide KCC campaign, with the ultimate goal of ensuring maximum saturation of eligible individuals in the state.
The commissioner shared plans for an upcoming state-level review meeting with bankers, the NABARD, and the SLBC to specifically address challenges faced by the district officers in obtaining loan sanctions for deserving fishers and fish farmers.
The meeting was attended by the fisheries director, the DDF-cum-nodal officers (KCC), the fisheries undersecretary, the NABARD general manager, the State Level Bankers Committee convener, and other officers from the fisheries directorate.
