From V Muraleedharan of BJP to Mullappalli Ramanchandran, the newly elected Kerala Pradesh Congress Chief- everybody is opposing the Leftist govt plan to amalgamate the profit making DCCBs into a loss making apex body, to be known as Kerala Co-operative Bank.
They fear that the newly established bank could be misused by the political establishments to fund state projects rather than catering to the needs of the common people who have been dependent on DCCBs for a long period.
These leaders have written letters to RBI Governor Urjit Patel and to the newly appointed Director on the RBI Board Satish Marathe, asking them not to give the green light to what they call an evil idea.
In his letter to the RBI Governor, Mullappalli who also happens to be a former Union Minster of State for Agriculture & Cooperation says “The three tier co-operative credit structure in Kerala is sound with a wide network covering almost all the rural and urban population of the state. About 70% of the financial requirements of the poor and marginal elements like agriculturists, small scale industrialists, petty business persons, self-employed people etc are dependent on the credit co-operatives of Kerala for their livelihood, he underlines.
BJP leader V Muraleedharan argues that the Kerala Bank was in the election manifesto of LDF and as such has no wider acceptability. In meetings conducted across the state only Palakkad District Co-op Bank accepted the idea, he disclosed.
V Muraleedharan also says that the move is unconstitutional as it is against Article 19(1), Part 3 of the Constitution of India. He further argues the state govt has only 22% share in these banks and as such has no power to override the voice of genuine stake-holders.
The leaders also point out that the 803 DCCBs branches with at least 50 branches in each district are doing a commendable job with a business turnover of more than one lakh crore rupee. The credit deposit ratio of DCCBs in agriculture dominated districts of Kerala, ie Idukki – 96%, Wynad – 85%, Malappuram – 90% reveal the importance of these banks to the farmer community in the state.
They also pointed out that the bank which is planned to take over DCCBs’ is marred by a gross mismanagement and has amassed a net loss of Rs.225 crore as on 31-3-2017.
It bears recall that DCCBs in the state are providing all modern banking facilities like RTGS, NEFT, Rupay card, NRE A/c, DBT, ATM etc also and the majority of the people in rural areas depend on these banks for their banking activities. The DCCBs are largely stable with respect to containment of NPA and abide by the stipulations of CRAR.