Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture Production Department (APD), Atal Dulloo today emphasised upon the officers of the departments to work for full utilization of Rs 900 crores available for interest subvention under the Centrally Sponsored Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) and Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) schemes.
The meeting was attended by Directors of Agriculture, Directors of Horticulture, Directors of Animal Husbandry, Directors of Sheep Husbandry from both the divisions of Jammu and Kashmir besides the Director Fisheries and several other concerned officers.The Jammu based officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
The ACS impressed upon the officers that people should be assisted to take benefit under these schemes. He gave out that Agriculture based industry is the future of the UT as our economy is majorly dependent on it. He favoured for creating awareness among the youth to establish their entrepreneurial units under the said schemes. He asked them to increase the number of applicants substantially in coming days.
Dulloo further impressed upon the officers to renew their efforts for reaping the maximum benefits and bearing tangible results on ground. He directed the Nodal Officer of the schemes to devise a common format for reflecting the weekly performance of each head of the department under these development programmes.
The ACS also directed the heads of each department to analyze each rejected application by the Committee so that the necessary rectifications are carried out and the same are not repeated in the new applications.The meeting was informed that at the end of the previous month Director Agriculture Jammu had uploaded 85 cases, Director Agriculture Kashmir 19 cases, Director Horticulture Jammu 12 cases and Director Horticulture Kashmir 8 cases under this scheme.
Similarly it was told that the projects aim at creating modern infrastructure for Agriculture development in the UT. These projects include creation of Cold Storage facilities, Dairy development, Walnut and other agriculture products processing. It was given out that applications from remote districts like Shopian, Kupwara and Kishtwar had also been received under these schemes.
The meeting was also apprised that all the loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore. This subvention will be available for a maximum period of 7 years. In case of loans beyond ? 2 crore, then interest subvention will be limited up to Rs. 2 crore. The extent and percentage of funding to private entrepreneurs out of the total financing facility may be fixed by the National Monitoring Committee, as was revealed in the meeting.