Bhubaneswar: The state government will not tolerate Banks found neglecting credit disbursement to different livelihood programmes launched to counter impact of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Patnaik said this on Thursday while reviewing the coronavirus situation in the state and the government's efforts in tackling the pandemic situation.
The coronavirus cases tally has increased to 3,22,642 in Odisha on Thursday, while a total of 1,794 citizens have lost their lives due to the deadly virus till the date.
Patnaik has earlier launched several livelihood programmes for farmers, members of Mission Shakti, MSME and others affected due to outbreak of the disease.
The banks were told to disburse adequate credit to the vulnerable groups in order to bail them out of the pandemic situation.
"The Chief Minister will take a review of the credit disbursement to different livelihood programmes with district magistrates and bank authorities on December 22, an official statement said.
"The state will not tolerate negligence in disbursement of credit to the livelihood programmes. The state government will lodge complaint against the erring banks if found neglecting credit disbursement," Patnaik said.
The state government on December 22 will write to the Finance Ministry on the erring banks, a statement issued by the Chief Ministers Office said, adding that Patnaik has asked the state administration to remain alert towards the challenges posed to the states economy.
As a nationwide vaccination programme is likely to start soon, Patnaik said Odisha is ready with the database and logistics to smoothen the COVIF-19 vaccination activities.
However, Patnaik said the people should adhere to all the COVID-19 norms even after the arrival of vaccines.
This is because the vaccination programme may take around one years time to fight the virus.
He also suggested to make people aware about the vaccination programme.
The chief minister said that the sero-survey will be undertaken in Ganjam, Nayagarh and Koraput district by December 31, while the next round of sero-survey to take place in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in January.
Chief Secretary A K Tripathy while attending the review meeting, said that there has been satisfactory improvement in the corona situation across the state.
Additional Chief Secretary P K Mohapatra said the states recovery rate has increased to 98.52 per cent.
Similarly, the daily new case reporting rate has further declined to 0.96 per cent from 1 per cent.
Mohapatra said the state government has decided to adopt the election module while implementing vaccine programmes.
Like people visit booths to cast their votes, they will come for taking vaccines, Mohapatra said.
(With PTI inputs)