Cooperative bodies should open accounts only with cooperative banks: Union Minister Amit Shah

સહકારી બેંક ગરીબથી પણ ગરીબ વ્યક્તિને લોન અને અન્ય બેંકિંગ સુવિધાઓ પ્રદાન કરીને મોદીજીના ‘સહકારથી સમૃદ્ધિ’ના મંત્રને જમીન પર ચરિતાર્થ કરવા માટે ઉલ્લેખનીય યોગદાન આપી રહી છે.

આજે ગુજરાતની સુરેન્દ્રનગર જીલ્લા સહકારી બેંક લિમિટેડના નવનિર્મિત ભવનનું ઈ-લોકાર્પણ કર્યું. ₹10 કરોડની… pic.twitter.com/7fCG7t6cy6

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 29, 2023

“Ultimately, money from the cooperative institutes goes to SBI and private banks. Due to this, cooperative banks do not have enough deposits while the private banks and State Bank of India throw their rule book at us (when we approach them for finance),” he said. Shah also announced that the Gujarat State Cooperative (GSC) Bank, under an initiative of the Central government, has undertaken a pilot project in Banaskantha and Panchmahal districts to persuade cooperative institutes to have their bank accounts only with cooperative banks.

The pilot project has produced tremendous results, Shah stressed. The cooperative banks in the districts achieved 82 per cent of their Kisan Credit Card (KCC) target, 100 per cent of the micro ATMs installation target, and 159 per cent of the target set to open new bank accounts. Cooperative sector banks in these two districts saw a surge of more than Rs 800 crore in deposits, he said while virtually addressing a public meeting of farmers after inaugurating a new office building of Surendranagar District Cooperative Bank in Surendranagar. Given the success of the pilot project, Shah urged GSC Bank chairman Ajaybhai Patel to replicate the project in other districts of Gujarat.

GSC Bank is the apex cooperative bank of Gujarat and Shah has served as its president in the past. It launched the pilot project in the two districts in June-July this year. “The results have been very positive and the project has succeeded in strengthening inter-cooperative relations in Banaskantha and Panchmahal. We shall think of replicating this project into other districts,” Pradip Vora, chief executive officer (CEO) of GSC Bank said, adding, “Nationalised banks and private banks charge exorbitant rates for credit but cooperation among cooperative bodies can augment lending capacity of cooperative banks which, in turn, can meet credit requirement of cooperative sector.”

Vora said the credit requirement of the cooperative sector is not huge. “Hence, this can be a sustainable model in the longer run also.”

Currently, cooperative institutes such as dairies, agricultural produce market committees (APMCs), and district cooperative federations, among others, have their bank accounts with nationalised banks such as SBI or private commercial banks.

The Union Minister also informed that the Central government will soon release its cooperative policy. “It will have a vision for what the cooperative sector will look like 25 years from now and will have details like what should be the type of infrastructure for running a number of schemes, including the world’s largest foodgrain distribution programme.” He said before the NDA government returned to power in 2014, the PACS was dwindling in the country and had come down to 65,000 from one lakh.

But he added that with a view to give a fillip to the cooperative sector, the Central government has decided to facilitate creation of two lakh new PACS and has sanctioned Rs 2,500 crore for computerisation of PACS. The minister said that out of the target of setting up two lakh new PACS, 20,000 have already been set up and have notified common bylaws for every cooperative society and have turned them into multipurpose cooperative societies.

The SDC, which has around 200 PACS as its members and serves 28,000 farmers of Surendranagar, constructed the office building at the cost of around Rs 10 crore.