After the cooperators led by NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav knocked at the door of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, it is the turn of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to lead a delegation to him to highlight the crisis besetting DCCBs post demonetization.
Fadnavis is to meet Jaitley today on Thursday along with his Finance Minister and representatives from various political parties including NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena.
Despite promises made by Jaitley to cooperators of taking up the matter with the RBI Governor earlier, his Ministry remained silent for the whole of Tuesday and Wednesday. It was not conveyed to the media if at all Jaitley met the Governor or discussed the issue of co-operative banks with Mr Urjit Patel, the Governor.
Readers would note District Central Cooperative Banks have been debarred from the exchange of old currency notes unlike other banks. Apart from an avalanche of petitions, this has led to scores of court cases across the country. The
matter was to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday but has been postponed for the next Monday as the Chief Justice was not available.
The leaders also impressed upon the Minister that co-op banks are equipped with modern facilities to operate as the desired level of RBI. Inability of co-op banks in sorting fake notes from genuine ones was quoted as a reason behind this decision.
Coming to Maharashtra, M.L. Sukhdeve, chairman of State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) the apex body of DCCBs said DCCBs have a problem regarding the notes that they have already collected worth Rs3,500 crore to Rs4,000 crore. There has not been any instruction about what the DCCBs are supposed to do with these notes,” he said.
