Dimapur: Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the measures and initiatives taken for the North-Eastern states, where a new scheme, PM -DevINE was announced in the union budget 2022-2023. She said that an initial allocation of Rs 1500 crore has been made for the new scheme which will fund infrastructure, in the spirit of PM GatiShakti, and social development projects based in the North-East.
The Union Finance minister said this during an interactive session with the business community, women entrepreneurs and media today at Rhododendron Hall, Police Officer’s Mess in Dimapur.
According to the Union Finance minister, under the special assistance to states for capital expenditure, Rs 2,100.13 crore during the financial year 2020-21 and Rs 2,483.77 crore during the financial year 2021-22 were released to eight North- Eastern states in the form of a 50-year interest-free loan. In the financial year 2022-23, the eight North-Eastern states are expected to receive Rs 6,826 crore under Part- I of the scheme.
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During the interactive session with the business community and women entrepreneurs, she said instructions have been given to the banks to go over to each district in Nagaland and continue to converge with the existing government schemes and other credit premises of the business sector that will be available. She appealed to the business community to approach the bank when they come to the districts with a proposal of thoughts and with an idea of a business proposition, as it is going to uphold and strengthen their business.
On the banking and financial inclusion in Nagaland, she highlighted that in Jan Dhan Accounts the number of accounts holder is 3.50 lakh. The number of bank branches in Nagaland is 271 and bank branches in PSB/RRB is 200. Direct benefit transfer for Nagaland is Rs 287 crore cumulative and under KCC the number of loans sanctioned is 24,901; under Stand up India scheme accounts sanctioned is 522 and for women 58.
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Nirmala also highlighted the smart cities mission, where she informed that 17 out of 35 projects of Kohima Smart City are completed and the central Government has released a total of Rs 245 crore, out of which Rs 195.99 crore has been utilized as of July 8, 2022.
(Newmai News Network)