Bhubaneswar: July 12: NABARD Odisha Regional Office celebrated the 36th Foundation Day on 12 July 2017, in a function organized for the occasion in Hotel Swosti Premium, Bhubaneswar. The Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of Odisha, Shri Shashi Bhusan Behera, was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Shri B.V.G.Reddy, CGM, SBI also graced the occasion. Representatives from various State Government departments, banks and NGOs attended the function.
At the beginning of the function, Dr. K. C. Panigrahi, CGM, NABARD extended a warm welcome to the dignitaries and participants, and briefly mentioned about the roles and functions of NABARD during the last 35 years. He highlighted the major achievements of NABARD in the State of Odisha and apprised the gathering about the initiatives taken by NABARD in providing credit support and implementing various developmental and promotional programmes since 1982 and during 2016-17. While appreciating the excellent cooperation extended by the State Government, banks, development agencies and other stakeholders, he listed out the priority areas for NABARD during the current year, which included augmentation of rural credit, formation and functioning of producers’ organizations and raising farm income through building partnerships. He elaborated that during the year 2016-17, NABARD has extended a total credit support of over ₹ 14,715 crore in the State. Of this, NABARD provided ₹ 9,630 crore to the banks in the State, enabling them to provide concessional short term as well as long term loans to over 3 million farmers in the State. Besides providing credit support to the banks, NABARD is involving itself in the State in the whole process of credit planning and monitoring.
Hon’ble Finance Minister, Shri Shashi Bhusan Behera profusely congratulated NABARD on the occasion and appreciated it for its continuous support and active involvement in developing the rural sector of the State. He commended NABARD for implementation of Watershed and Wadi development projects and for carrying out a massive campaign for water conservation in the State. He also expressed his gratitude to NABARD for providing resources to the State Government for creation of infrastructure. Under RIDF alone, NABARD has so far sanctioned ₹ 17,835 crore and disbursed ₹ 12,325 crore to the State Government for implementation of over 2 lakh projects in rural connectivity like roads & bridges, irrigation, agriculture and allied sectors
Shri B. Venu Gopala Reddy, CGM, SBI appreciated the success of NABARD in contribution to development of rural infrastructure and growth in agricultural credit for the state of Odisha. He assured that SBI will always be delighted to be associated with NABARD in implementation of rural development projects.
During the function, one publication, viz. “NABARD in Odisha – 2016-17”, was released by Hon’ble Finance Minister.
On this occasion, for the first time, awards were given by NABARD to the best-performing SHGs, JLGs, Farmers’ Clubs, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), NGOs and Banks from the hands of the Hon’ble Finance Minister.
The programme ended with the Vote of Thanks by Shri M. Soren, General Manager, NABARD.
