Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that the hard-earned money of gullible depositors stuck in beleaguered Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society will be released sooner than later.
He was having an informal interaction with media persons on the sidelines of the launch ceremony of IFFCO Nano DAP at Saket, New Delhi.
On the question raised by the Indian Cooperative correspondent he said, “We are helping 10 crore investors associated with Sahara Group’s four societies, we will also work on helping the depositors of Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society”.
“It was easy in the case of Sahara because the amount is with the SEBI but in the matter of Adarsh Credit Co-op Society, we have to sell the assets of the society to pay out the money of depositors and the discussion with the stakeholders is going on”, he added.
The Union Minister was confident that a way out would be found sooner than later. “Yes, we are aware of the matter and the ministry is aware of the issue”, pat came his reply as soon as this correspondent raised the issue.
The Indian Cooperative desk keeps receiving letters from the helpless victim of Adarsh Credit Co-op from across the country who seek the intervention of the Minister in the matter. They point out that the case of Sahara Co-op was no less ticklish but the Ministry even went to the apex court to help the victims. They are expecting some out of the box solution for themselves as well.
The founder chairman of Adarsh Credit Co-op Mukesh and his family members are alleged to have run Ponzi schemes and floated several fake companies to which they diverted Rs 8400 crore.
Twenty lakh people invested Rs 14,682 crore over 8 years in Adarsh credit society.
In the media interaction Shah exhorted scribes to focus on the cooperative sector and called it a nerve point for rural growth. Giving details of the new avatar of PACS, the minister said that two lakh panchayats where there is no PACS will have one in the next five years.
Extolling the virtues of multidimensional PACS, the Minister however conceded to this correspondent that it may have some glitches in its operation but the same would be resolved as and when they appear.
“You cannot stop a good thing only because it may not succeed; we have to roll it out to see how it materializes on the ground” Said the minister when this correspondent pointed out that local muscle men may put impediments to the democratic functioning of PACS.