NABARD to assist West Bengal for rural infra development

Kolkata, July 14 (KNN) The West Bengal government has joined hands with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development for the development of rural infrastructure in the state.

Speaking at the 41st foundation day of Nabard in Kolkata, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Manoj Pant said that Nabard can play an important role as it can help in building forward and backward linkages.

Pant said that the agricultural bank has already provided Rs 2,000 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in the last financial year. “This fiscal, we intend to increase it to Rs 2,500 crore.

There are certain areas such as marketing of products, regarding the FPOs and the SHGs where the state government is working to fill in the gaps.

Chief General Manager A R Khan said the Nabard had provided nearly Rs 14,000 crore under various programmes, asserting that there would be a growth of 15-16 per cent this year.

The previous year, the bank had refinanced Rs 750 crore to the microfinance institutions in the state. It had also collaborated with IIT Kharagpur for incubating startups in the agriculture sector.  (KNN Bureau)