From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, May 17: Even as Karnataka is trying to emerge as a major investment destination in India by organising a Global Investors Meet and woo top national and multi-national industrial enterprises to establish their units in the state, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has indicated that he was seriously considering setting up a Rs 5,000 crore agricultural revolving fund over the next five years.

"We are targeting providing Rs 1,000 crore per year over the next five years for setting up the agricultural revolving fund as part of the strategy to help growers through the market intervention schemes whenever the prices crashed,” he said.

He was addressing the representatives of Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank and District credit co-operative banks at a meeting held here on Monday to review their performance.

The chief minister said creating a massive fund could help the state government to undertake market intervention schemes on its own without waiting for the Centre’s assistance.

“Such a step is necessary to instil confidence among farmers as they have started feeling that agriculture is a loss-making venture,” he said pointing out that the growing migration of rural youth to cities was a cause for worry and creating problems in the rural as well as urban areas.

Yeddyurappa urged the Co-operative sector, especially the Apex Bank, to take up micro credit schemes to help the poor come out of the vicious debt trap of paying daily interest to private money-lenders.

"It is unfortunate that these people are paying most part of their day’s income to money lenders,’’ he said.

The Chief Minister suggested that the Apex Bank should take up implementation of the scheme of providing soft loans to the dairy farmers for buying high yielding cows at 6 % rate of interest and said assisting 1,000 families in each assembly constituency would go a long way in improving the lot of rural farmers, especially those engaged in dairy farming.

Responding to the plea by the Apex Bank to shift the deposits of various government departments in commercial banks to it, Yeddyurappa said he was ready to shift the deposit of about Rs 863 crore regarding the Bhagya Lakshmi Scheme from the LIC to Apex Bank if it wholeheartedly supported the Government’s initiatives in various sectors to help the rural farmers.

The chief minister urged the co-operative sector to play a pro-active role especially in improving rural infrastructure. “Agriculture cannot survive without the help of co-operative sector,” he said.

He asked the members of Apex and DCC banks to take part in the government’s second anniversary function as well as the convention of the newly elected village panchayat members and global investors’ meet.

Expressing confidence that investment to the tune of Rs. 3,00,000 crores would be finalised at the global investors’ meet in June with respect to projects in areas outside Bangalore, he said the
co-operative banks may get an opportunity to finance some of these projects.

Karnataka’s  Co-operation Minister Laxman Savadi requested the chief minister to give clearance for his department’s proposal to set up 11 courts in various districts to exclusively deal with the cases related to co-operative sector. This would help dispose nearly 55,000 pending
cases, he said.

He reiterated that the government would table the bill for amending the legislation related to money-lenders and pawn brokers in the next legislature lesion. He urged the DCC banks to start e-stamping activity.

Apex Bank Chairman Manjunatha Gowda appealed to the government to shift deposits of its departments from commercial banks to Apex Bank.

The Apex Bank had disbursed loans to the tune of\ Rs 3,743.28 crore to 13.46 lakh farmers during 2009-10. The bank had set a target of disbursing Rs. 4,297.33-crore loans to 17 lakh farmers
in this financial year.