Srinagar, Oct 10: The Chairman and CEO J&K Bank, Mushtaq Ahmad, presented two dividend cheques for Rs 67.02 Crore today as dividend for the year 2010-11 to the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. The state government is the majority shareholder of the Bank. The dividend is the highest ever dividend paid by the Bank so far.
The two dividend cheques were presented to the Chief Minister in presence of Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, Political Advisor to the Chief Minister, Devender Singh Rana, Economic Advisor to the Government, Jalil Ahmad Khan, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Sudhanshu Pandey and Abdul Rauf Bhat President J&K Bank.
With this payment, the Government, which owns over 53% of bank’s shares, has earned a total dividend income of Rs. 370.89 Crore on its investments since 1938. As per the current market price, the investment amount of Rs. 53 Crore in the Bank by the government has appreciated to Rs 1938 Crore.
The chief minister appreciated the chairman for his outstanding leadership and praised the bank for showing remarkable growth in its business during the tenure. He congratulated the Bank for being awarded as ‘The Best Bank’ in FE India’s Best Banks Awards and reiterated his government’s confidence and trust in the Bank’s leadership and its institutional capacities to achieve excellence.
The chief minister said, “We would like the bank to walk an extra mile in this direction and facilitate budding entrepreneur and qualified youth to venture upon in industrial and other sectors for earning their livelihood”. He urged for smooth and easy flow of credit from the Bank for prospective business and economic reorientation particularly in rural areas.
Describing Jammu and Kashmir Bank people’s own bank, the Chief Minister said that people in the State for this reason have rightful expectations that the bank would focus greater attention towards smooth credit flow to help generation of wide-ranging economic activities.
The chief minister emphasized the need for strengthening of J&K Grameen bank activities and asked for formulating packages for the agriculture and allied sectors to facilitate economic growth in a balanced manner. “This will open new vistas of job opportunities for youth and give boost to trade and business in rural areas,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion Mushtaq Ahmad, Chairman & CEO of the Bank, thanked the Chief Minister for the trust his government reposes in the Bank and apprised him about the Bank’s recent performance.
While highlighting the achievements of the bank, Chairman said, “As against last half year’s business of Rs. 60000 crore the Bank has achieved over Rs. 75000 crore business this half year registering an overall growth of about 25 percent. He said during the current financial year the Bank expects to mobilize business aggregating to Rs. 85000 crore while the target for the next year has been fixed at Rs. 100000 crores. Similarly, the profit of the Bank is likely to grow to Rs. 1000 crore in 2012-13.”
The Chairman said that under the recruitment drive, the Bank is shortly appointing 1500 personnel while 100 to 200 appointments in the officers’ category would be made during the next year. The practice of filling up the vacancies will be made a regular feature, he said.
He also briefed the government about the Bank’s massive expansion drive wherein the Bank would establish more than 100 Business Units by the end of this fiscal to push further into the un-banked and under-banked areas of the state.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST