Chairman of NABARD, Dr. G.R. Chinatala inaugurated the Regional Office building of NABARD today, on December 9, at MINECO, Khatla, Aizawl.
NABARD Chairman’s speech
Chairman Dr Chinatala in his speech said NABARD’s willingness to match the State Government’s efforts in accelerating the speed of growth in the State. He said that NABARD has been supporting various developmental efforts since its beginning in the state, however, a lot is still left to be done to uplift the socio-economic infrastructure of the beautiful state of Mizoram. The NABARD chairman particularly mentioned the need for planning and implementation on the part of various State Government departments to elevate Nagaland’s infrastructure.
NABARD in Mizoram
NABARD which began operating in Mizoram as a sub-office in 1989, was upgraded to a full-fledged Regional Office in 1992. Since the inception of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in 1995-96, NABARD has approved aggregate loans amounting to Rs. 1744.51 crores that involve 677 projects for critical rural infrastructure like rural roads, bridges, drinking water, health infrastructure, etc. of which Rs. 1070.81 crores has been disbursed so far. Under the Warehousing Infrastructure Fund, NABARD has supported Mizoram Government with a total loan amount of Rs. 112.76 crores in building 111 warehouses with an aggregate capacity of 42,174 MT for storing agriculture and horticulture produce.
NABARD’s extensive support towards local bodies
NABARD through its different grant schemes have supported various organisations, banks, and local bodies in areas like tribal development, setting up rural markets, rural marts, spring shed development, providing banking technology products to MRB and MCAB, providing mobile ATMs, supporting innovative agriculture extension programmes, developing PACS, skill development programmes, supporting GI products, financial literacy camps, handloom producer organisation, etc. The total grant provided by NABARD during the last three years under its grant based development initiatives was more than 35 crores.
Attendees of the meeting
The meeting was attended among others, by Shri J.C.Ramthanga, Addl. Chief Secretary to Chief Minister, Director, NABARD, Shri P. Shimrah, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, Aizawl and Shri Lalmuankima Henry, Engineer-in-Chief, PWD, Govt. of Mizoram.
