Breaking its silence, Sahakar Bharati said it is opposed to the idea of merging district Central Cooperative Banks of Uttar Pradesh with the State Cooperative Bank. RSS leaning body’s UP Chapter had called a meeting of cooperators associated with DCCBs of the state through webinar in this regard on Tuesday.
The webinar was attended by one of the founder Chairman of Sahakar Bharati and RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, Sahakar Bharati National General Secretary Uday Joshi, Sahakar Bharati UP Chapter President Ramashankar Jaiswal, UP Sangathan Pramukh Rajdutt Pandey, Chairman of Nine DCCBs of UP and others. It lasted for over two hours.
The leaders argued that the idea of merging the DCCBs will stifle the rural credit system. It will be against the three-tier structure. It was decided in the meeting that if the corona situation will improve then a meeting of Chairman/Directors of DCCBs will be called in October in Lucknow for deliberation on the issue of merger.
On one side Sahakar Bharati is opposing the idea of merger of DCCBs and on other side the UP Cooperative Bank Employees Union has supported the concept saying it would do good to the DCCBs. Through social media, the union representatives are continuously urging the state government to take action on the committee report which was submitted several months back.
Talking to Indian Cooperative Uday Joshi said, “There is the three-tier structure in the state which can’t be finished. Earlier when the Kerala govt was merging all DCCBs with the apex bank, BJP leaders were against the merger. How could it be acceptable to us in one of the BJP ruled states”, said Joshi underlining the relation between Sahakar Bharati with BJP without saying son in words. We will strongly oppose the move, he said emphatically.
“At present DCCBs are taking care of PACCs societies in their respective districts but after the merger who will take care of these PACCs which have been associated with DCCBs for a long time. According to our information, only a few are in favour of the merger and a majority of them are opposing the move”, Joshi underlined.
Talking to Indian Cooperative one of the participants in the webinar, Unnao District Central Cooperative Bank Chairman Hari Sahay Mishra said, “We are opposing the move of merger with the state cooperative bank because the existence of district banks is very useful for PACS and farmers. Besides, the apex bank of the state is exploiting us in many ways and obstructing our development activities. We demand direct finance from Nabard instead of from the apex bank”.
It is being reported that there are 50 DCCBs in the state out of which 16 are weighed down by a weak financial background. Even the district cooperative banks falling in the constituencies of Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in the red.
Readers would recall that the state government has formed an Academic Technical Committee on merger under the Chairmanship of IIM Prof Vikas Srivastava and the committee has submitted its report.