Nabard programme on financing joint liability groups

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) organised a sensitisation programme on financing joint liability groups (JLGs) here recently, at Canara Bank's Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCC) in the city, for branch managers and field officers of commercial banks in Madurai district.

Mr S. Karthikeyan, General Manager, Pandyan Grama Bank (PGB), inaugurating the programme, said that JLG would benefit the share croppers, landless farmers and micro entrepreneurs and there is need to focus on this section of clientele as they held the key for nation's food security.

Mr R. Shankar Narayan, Assistant General Manager, Nabard, Madurai, speaking earlier, said that membership in the basically loan driven.

He further said that Nabard has fixed an ambitious target of inspiring banks to form 1.50 lakh JLGs of which around 50 per cent is to be achieved by the four southern States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Mr K.N.Subramanian, Lead District Manager, Canara Bank, urged bankers to help achieve the target of 500 JLGs in the current fiscal.

Participants from the leading banks in the district such as Corporation Bank, TMB, UBI, BOB, IOB, Indian Bank, SBI, Canara Bank also shared their experiences and agreed upon an action plan to give fillip to JLG financing during the coming months in the district.