Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala chaired National KCC Conference for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying’ in Maharashtra today. Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying organised the National KCC Conference in coordination with Department of Fisheries. Minister of State, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Dr. L. Murugan, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Minister for Fisheries, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister for Revenue, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Radhakrishna Eknathrao Vikhe Patil, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ms. Alka Upadhyaya, Additional Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ms. Varsha Joshi, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries), Department of Fishries, Shri Sagar Mehra and Chief Executive, NFDB, Dr. L. Narasimha Murthy, ARS were present in the event. Special guests, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shri Neeraj Nigam and CGM, Dept. of Refinance, NABARD, Shri Vivek Sinha too graced the occasion.

Union Minister Shri Parshottam Rupala congratulated all officials from Department of Fisheries(DoF), Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying(DAHD), Govt. of Maharashtra. He emphasized that KCC should be issued to both AHD and fisheries’ farmers and as a first step they should be acknowledged. This is expected to develop the rural economy. He appreciated the work undertaken by the department officials along with district officers for promotion of KCC during Sagar Parikrama. He said that reviews at district levels should be done to address on ground issue.

Short videos on PMMSY and KCC by DoF /DAHD and KCC with benefits and eligibility of KCC along with testimonials from beneficiaries were shared. Shri Parshottam Rupala distributed KCC cards to eligible fishers and fishermen. Followed by virtual interactions the beneficiaries shared their experiences in availing KCC.

MoS, MoFAH&D, Dr. L Murugan, welcomed everyone for the first National KCC Conference and emphasised that a component of Garib Kalyan includes financial inclusion hence it should be endured that high interest loan imposed by local creditor need to be eliminated through promotion of KCC all over the country. Hence he urged all Banks to come forward, train and build capacity. Minister for Revenue, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Radhakrishna Eknathrao Vikhe Patil advised all bankers present to relax the norms as both the sectors of DAHD and DoF are undergoing transformation and requires credit at the ground level.

Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad highlighted that as India moves towards achieving our goal of becoming the 3^rd largest economy, changes need to take place at the grass root level. He urged that KCC should be given to all fisheries’ applicants, pending applications should be dealt with at the earliest and return applications either from bank or applicant should be taken up. Like the state scheme of Gujarat that finances loan at 0%, such a provision should also be proposed to the cabinet. He also urged that small scale vendors and women vendors should be treated as vendors to make implementation easy. He suggested that Banks should participate proactively in promoting the scheme and door to door mobilisation for KCC should take place. Minister for Fisheries, Forest and Cultural Affairs, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Sudhir Mungantiwar, appreciated the Sagar Parikarama programme and congratulation the Union Minister for leading the initiative. He emphasised that KCC applicants should be handheld with care and vendors too should be granted loans such that problems of market linkages, technology adoption etc may be resolved. He also suggested that provisions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should be explored for livelihood generation.

Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Dr Abhilakh Likhi mentioned that with Fisheries has a credit target of Rs 25,000 crore hence ease of business is critical. Prioritisation for examining reasons for rejection of applications, review of Scale of finance for shrimp culture and other intensive activities, credit for women vendors, inclusion of FAHD in Ghar Ghar KCC abhiyan, fund requirements for capacity building, outreach, communication by States/UTs etc were highlighted during the address.  Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ms Alka Upadhyaya highlighted that India is known as the ‘Dairy of the world’ and now India needs to move ahead from self-sufficiency towards entrepreneurship and value addition. Need for KCC outreach at district and block levels for coverage of larger beneficiary base and need for monitoring in collaboration with DFS was emphasised upon.

The event kick started with Welcome address by Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries), Department of Fishries, Shri Sagar Mehra and requested all stakeholders present to share their views, issues, challenges, suggestions, feedbacks to identify specific causes and gaps in implementation of KCC scheme. He emphasised that certain norms need to be relaxed and some corrective actions need to be taken so that KCC reaches all eligible farmers across the country. Additional Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ms. Varsha Joshi highlighted the achievements on KCC in DAHD and challenges faced by the sector. She urged that stakeholders should relax few norms and educate farmers as needed.

Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shri Neeraj Nigam highlighted that enhancement in uptake of small loans is essential to achieve financial inclusion. He deliberated that banks need to comply with RBI KCC guidelines, further, bank staff may be trained in financial literacy and campaigning should be done across the year, processing timelines should be followed while status should be relevantly communicated by the banks. He mentioned that monitoring should be taken seriously and should be done at the lower levels i.e. block and district levels for issues to be further highlighted at the state level. CGM, Dept. of Refinance, NABARD, Shri V.K Sinha highlighted that allied sectors of agriculture have become equally important as the core sector itself and for realising the actual potential each value chain node needs to be focused upon. He highlighted that NABARD is reviewing RRBs regularly and will continue to do so to get on-ground information. He suggested that uniform guidelines should be made available for bankers to follow on issues related to the documentation.

Chief General Manager, ABU & GSS, SBI, Shri Shantanu Pendsey briefly spoke about the products offered by SBI to farmers which includes the newly developed product for supporting value addition/ processing in the value chain. He informed that challenges highlighted during the discussion have been duly noted and as an immediate step an advisory will be issued and circulated to ground zero for reiterating on compliance to the KCC guidelines and relaxation of insistence of ownership papers, cibil score while norms such as no collateral till 1.6 lakh, guarantor be followed. Former Governor Uttar Pradesh, Shri Ram Naik appreciated the Sagar Parikrama programme led by the Union Minister, MoFAH&D and urged inclusion of CSR for activities such as small landing centers etc should be promoted.

A total of 80,000 participants joined through physical and virtual modes; 35 states/UTs joined from 370 locations with 21,000 fishers and fish farmers, 9000 joined physically and through virtual mode while 50,000 AHD farmers connected through 1000 Common Service Centers (CSCs). Around 22 lakh public were reached out through digital, electronic, print media as part of outdoor campaign and publicity material in 7 vernacular languages on Guidelines/SOP were distributed and video on KCC facility for Fisheries was released. The programme concluded with Vote of Thanks by CE, NFDB, Shri L N Murthy.

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SK/SS/SM