Pradhan was speaking as Chief Guest and inaugurator of Ninth Triennial General Council of SBI Staff Association's Bhubaneswar Circle here at J N Indoor Stadium.
Congratulating the banks for helping the government save Rs 15,000 crore as annual subsidy outgo on cooking gas through DBTL scheme, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday urged the State Bank of India employees to extend same cooperation to Pradhan Mantri MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana.
Pradhan was speaking as Chief Guest and inaugurator of Ninth Triennial General Council of SBI Staff Association's Bhubaneswar Circle here at J N Indoor Stadium.
Stressing the need to support the small entrepreneurs in the country through the MUDRA model, Pradhan said banks must play yet another major role to help the Indian economy grow and prosper like Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna.
Pradhan inaugurated the conclave attended by over 9,000 members of all the 822 SBI branches of Bhubaneswar circle as Union minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha could not turn up for the occasion, accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi in US.
Attending the function as a guest of honour, Odisha Cooperation and Excise Minister Damodar Rout too complimented the State Bank of India for maintaining its credibility in the country.
Rout however, asked the banks to ensure that agriculture also gets importance at par with industry so as to prevent the 'Social Contrast' invading the country.
Taking a dig at banks' focus on car loans and housing loans, Rout wondered as to why the banks are not coming out with schemes for potato loans and onion loans to drive home his point that banks now must give adequate loans to farmers.
While the general secretary of All India SBI Staff Federation M V Murali delivered the keynote address, its secretary S K Bandlish, Bhubaneswar CGM B Venugopal Reddy, Mumbai CGM Debashis Sarkar addressed the inaugural session which was presided over by Bhubaneswar SBI staff association president S P Behera.
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 "Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan")
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