Banks Urged To Boost Farm Lending As Guntur Credit Plan Approved

 VIJAYAWADA: The Guntur district annual credit plan for 2026-27, with an outlay of ₹55,015 crore, was approved at a meeting on Friday, with emphasis on expanding credit to agriculture and allied sectors.

Union minister of state for rural development and IT Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, who chaired the District Consultative Committee and District Level Review Committee meetings at the Collectorate, urged banks to provide liberal credit to farmers for mechanisation, including tractors, drones and modern farm equipment.

He also called for increased lending to livestock, fisheries and poultry sectors and effective implementation of schemes such as PM Surya Ghar, Mudra and PMEGP to support small businesses.

District Collector C.M. Saikanth Varma said ₹36,400 crore of the total plan had been earmarked for priority sectors and ₹18,615 crore for non-priority sectors.

Lead Bank Manager Mahipal Reddy said the agriculture lending target was ₹18,974 crore, against which ₹6,351 crore had been disbursed by June. Against the MSME target of ₹15,996 crore, ₹6,635 crore had been sanctioned. Export credit exceeded its ₹58-crore target, reaching ₹91 crore, while education loans lagged, with ₹24 crore disbursed against a ₹210-crore target.

Overall, ₹13,234 crore had been sanctioned under priority sectors and ₹6,321 crore under non-priority sectors.

Chandrasekhar warned private banks against poor implementation of government schemes and stressed the need to improve Guntur’s performance under PMEGP and the Kisan Drone initiative.

He also discussed El Nino-related challenges, drinking water shortages and pension distribution issues, saying these were being taken up with the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.

Rajya Sabha MP Bhashyam Ramakrishna, district In-charge minister Kandula Durgesh, MLAs Tenali Sravan Kumar, Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar and Galla Madhavi, and senior officials of RBI, NABARD, Union Bank, SBI, Canara Bank and AP Grameena Bank attended.