A special meeting of J&K SLBC to discuss the relief measures for the borrowal accounts affected by the continued disturbances/ turmoil that has hit the State since July 8, 2016 was held today at Jammu. The meeting was presided over by B. R. Sharma, Chief Secretary, J&K Government and the proceedings were steered by Parvez Ahmad, Chairman & CEO, J&K Bank (Convenor, J&K SLBC). The meeting inter-alia was attended by Pramod Jain, Financial Commissioner, Agriculture Production Department, B.B. Vyas, Financial Commissioner, Planning & Development, Navin Kumar Chowdhary, Commissioner/ Secretary Finance, N. K. Sahu, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Vijay Kumar, Chief General Manager, NABARD and other senior functionaries of banks and financial institutions operating in the State.B. R. Sharma, Chief Secretary, J&K Government stated that the State Government has already declared entire State as disturbances hit from July 8, 2016 to November 15, 2016. Hence, it was decided that the relief/ restructuring measures shall be provided to eligible borrowers who have been affected by disturbances directly or indirectly across the State.
The package as conveyed by Reserve Bank of India vide their letter dated December 8, 2016, was adopted by the house for implementation by banks in consonance with the RBI Master Directions on Natural Calamity.The relief/ restructuring measures shall be framed by the individual banks in accordance to the extant guidelines contained in the Master Directions of Reserve Bank of India regarding Relief Measures byThe house endorsed that Regional Rural Bank and Cooperative Bank operating in the State should also provide relief / restructuring measures to their affected borrowers in terms of the relative Master Directions of Reserve Bank of India. However, RRBs and Cooperative Banks were advised to send a formal request in this regard to Reserve Bank of India, Regional Office, Jammu.As the State Government has declared the calamity in November 2016, banks have to complete the restructuring of eligible borrowal accounts within a period of three months from the date of natural calamity i.e. upto February 2017 as per the Directions of RBI. (CNS)