Sambalpur: The Sambalpur District Cooperative Central Bank (SDCCB) has launched a special drive to bring in improvement in the financial condition of returnee migrant labourers and landless people.
As part of this initiative, the bank will provide interest-free loans to migrant returnees and landless people. The loanees will not be charged any interest for one year. However, they will have to pay interest after completion of one year.
The SDCCB having its headquarters at Bargarh has 46 local area multipurpose cooperative societies (LAMPS) and other cooperative societies under its jurisdiction. As part of this drive, the bank has planned to lend Rs 400 crore in the current Kharif season out of which Rs 50 crore has been earmarked for landless people and migrant returnees.
As per the plan, the migrant returnees and landless people have to form a five to 10 member group in order to avail the loan. Each group will be loaned Rs 50,000 to take up vegetable cultivation or enter into a business.
The bank has sanctioned Rs 1.15 crore to 203 joint livelihood groups in this district so far and Rs 58 lakh to 131 landless people.
Lingaraj Nayak, deputy registrar, cooperative societies, said the loan scheme is part of a state government plan to rehabilitate migrant returnees and landless people. The loanees can repay the loan after improvement in their financial condition for which the moratorium period is one year.
PNN
