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 Indian
Bank, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Department of
Post, Tamil Nadu Circle. They are the winners of the State Level
Awards under Self Help Groups (SHG)-Bank Linkage Programme for the
year 2006-07.
The award function was organised by National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development (NABARD) recently on major partner agencies
including commercial banks, cooperative banks, NGOs and Regional
Rural Banks in the state for their excellent performance.
The Chief Guest, M. S. Sundara Rajan, Chairman
and Managing Director, Indian Bank, presented the awards. Awards for
various categories like banks with more than 400 branches, less than
400 and more than 100 branches, less than 100 branches, District
Central Cooperative Banks, NGOs, Commercial Bank branches and
Regional Rural Banks were given.
Indian Bank won the first prize for banks with
more than 400 branches followed by State Bank of India and Indian
Overseas Bank. Indian Bank’s Exclusive branch for SHG, Chetpet and
the Department of Post, Tamil Nadu Circle, were awarded special
prize. Nesakkarangal, Coimbatore; Avvai Village Welfare Society,
Nagapattinam; DHAN Foundation, Madurai and Integrated Village
Development Project, Krishnagiri were the award winning NGOs.
Sundara Rajan in his presidential address said,
“The SHG have played a remarkable role in women empowerment. 93% of
the members are women. With the help of SHG, the members could sell
various products including handicrafts, bags and pickles”.
He also said that people should get loans from
banks and not from money lenders. “However, it is also very
important to repay the money borrowed from the bank”, he said.
K. V. Raghavulu, Chief General Manager, NABARD,
Regional office, Tamil Nadu, said that the number of farmer clubs in
Tamil Nadu, which is around 1500 should be increased. At present
there are 6 lakh SHG and there is no plan of increasing its number,
he said.
Chandrasekaran, Chief General Manager, State Bank
of India said that there are enormous opportunities for commercial
banks in rural areas and they must be utilised properly.
A. Sailappan, Assistant General Manager, Micro
Credit Innovations Department (MCID) and A. Subramaniam, Executive
Director, Indian Bank were also present at the function.
Honouring the self help groups and NGOs for their
contribution would motivate them to work hard and they are
recognised by the society for their services.
U. Bakialakshmi
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