Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi (second from right) with bank officials at the meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 14: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today stressed the need for a mechanism to assess the performance of officers responsible for a speedy execution of welfare schemes.

Modi said the mechanism would help to keeps tabs on the progress of annual credit plan under which loans are disbursed to the beneficiaries.

“We must try to evolve a criterion or set a parameter on which the performance of officers can be rated,” Modi said, while interacting with the newly appointed senior deputy collectors (banking) and lead district managers in the capital.

“These senior deputy collectors, posted in each district, will be entrusted with the job of monitoring the banks’ performance and their activities, including the corruption in the disbursement of loans, which these officers have to weed out,” the deputy chief minister said.

“There have been allegations of corruption in availing banking facilities, particularly loans. The allegations could be exaggerated but they certainly need to be looked into. Stern action needs to be taken against those who demand bribe for sanctioning loans,” Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, said.

Modi pointed out that widescale corruption is prevailing in the banking system, especially when it comes to getting loans sanctioned.

“It is common that loans especially KCC loans are not sanctioned without commission. This practice has to be stopped and it would be possible only when bank officials are caught red-handed while accepting bribe,” Modi said.

“There should be a system of district-wise and branch-wise monitoring of annual credit plan to get the real picture of the branches that are not performing and the reasons for it. We have set Rs 43,200 crore as annual credit plan against last year’s Rs 37,000 crore. Of this, credit related to agriculture has been fixed at Rs 21,000 crore,” Modi added.