Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the NABARD to allow additional cost acceleration in the ongoing projects as a relaxation to the state government being a special case as this border state had suffered the brunt of partition besides economic slowdown due to decade long militancy, which has subsequently relegated it from the top slot in terms of overall economic development.Taking part in deliberations in a meeting jointly attended by the state government officers and a high level delegation of NABARD led by its Chairman Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala here at Punjab Bhawan this afternoon, the Chief Minister said that he was deeply indebted to NABARD for showing magnanimity in funding state's development projects on priority but still lot was to be done to further accelerate the tempo of all round growth of core sectors of Rural Development, Agriculture, Irrigation, Cooperation, Education and Power. The Chief Minister apprised Dr. Bhanwala that at present 50 projects with financial outlay of Rs 6000 crore were under active implementation. He said that during the current fiscal against Rs 495 crore, the state government has drawn Rs 269 crore and the balance Rs 266 crore would also be drawn well in time to ensure the optimum utilization of funds and the timely execution of development projects within the stipulated deadline.Badal however urged the NABARD Chief to grant extension in implementation period of few projects as the proposal has already been sent to its head office.
The Chief Minister also sought liberal assistance under the NABARD Infra Structure Development Assistance (NIDA) especially for the upgradation of all its Milk plants across the state to enhance the milk handling capacity and processing facilities on one hand and maximize the profit of Dairy farmers supplying milk to these Milk plants through cooperative milk unions on the other. He also requested the Chairman NABARD for expeditious clearance of TRANSCO projects worth Rs 394 crore submitted to it under NIDA.
Badal also pleaded for allowing change in nature/ scope within overall sanctioned amount of certain projects of school education, forest, irrigation etc. so that these projects could be completed within a time bound manner.Expressing a sense of gratitude and satisfaction over the maximum utilization of funds sanctioned by NABARD to the state, the Chairman NABARD said that Punjab was a 'role model' for other states in timely utilization of funds efficiently adding that this made Punjab eligible for getting more funds from it as 25% weightage was given on this count by the agency, while sanctioning additional funds in future sought by any state. Responding to the issues raised by the Chief Minister, Dr. Bhanwala highly appreciated the development and advancement made by the state in the Cooperative bank sector as all the 20 CCBs of the state were on CBS platform facilitated by NABARD. He also called upon the state government to immediately allow online access to land records as also for online creation charge to the banks (Karnataka model) which would smoothen the process of credit flow to the farmers. On this issue, the Chief Minister responded that this proposal has already been cleared by the state government and would be implemented shortly in the right earnest.
NABARD Chief assured Mr. Badal that all the pending proposals which needed clearance from them for the change in scope/ nature would be approved promptly to enable the state government to implement them. He also informed the Chief Minister that the NABARD has already constituted NABCONS- fully owned subsidiaries of NABARD, which had been undertaking various types of consultancy assignments for government and other including third party monitoring of GoI projects adding DR. Bhanwala impressed upon the Chief Minister to utilize the services of NABCONS for the implementation of various central projects efficaciously in a hassle free manner.The Chief Minister was accompanied by Cabinet Ministers Mr. Adaish Pratap Singh Kairon and Mr. Surjit Singh Rakhra, his Principal Secretary Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Irrigation Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary Rural Development and Panchayat Mr. MS Sandhu, Financial Commissioner Animal Husbandry Mr. G Vajralingam, Principal Secretary Education Mrs. Anjali Bhawra, Secretary Power Mr. Anirudh Tiwari, Secretary PWD Mr. PS Aujla, MD MILKFED Mrs. Alaknanda Dayal and Registrar Cooperative Societies Mr. AS Miglani. The NABARD delegation comprised Chief General Manager Mr. Naresh Gupta, General Manager Mr. LR Ramachandran, General Manager Mr. MR Chandekar, Deputy General Manager Mr. SN Chalia, Deputy General Manager Mr. PN Satya Prasad, Assistant General Manager Mr. Sanjoy Ghosh and Manager Mr. Rakesh.