Bhubaneswar: Odisha is second in the country in terms of the penetration of Kisan Credit Card (KCC).
The KCC scheme aims to free small farmers from the clutches of money lenders by providing them short-term loans at an interest rate of 4 per cent on the condition of timely payment. The Centre has set an estimate of Rs 20,000 crore, which will be utilised to sanction loan to KCC cardholders.
According to data available with Reserve bank of India (RBI), 41.24 lakh of 48.66 lakh operational holdings in Odisha were covered by KCCs as on January-end 2020.
Haryana topped this list with only 4.55 lakh operational holdings out of the KCC reach, while it was 7.42 lakh for Odisha.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a saturation drive for distribution of the cards to all the beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN Scheme in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot. So far, over 25 lakh beneficiaries of PM Kisan across the country have been provided KCC under the drive.
