After NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh it was Basudev Acharya’s turn to condemn Nabard circular. The Communist Parliamentarian and Chairman of committee on agriculture in Lok Sabha Mr Acharya has called for immediate withdrawal of the circular.
According to Acharya, the circular undermines the independence of PACS, weakens the institutional agri-credit system, threatens the federal structure of the country and smacks of arbitrariness and blatant refusal to consult with the stakeholders.
The short-term credit cooperatives comprised 93,000 primary cooperatives; 370 central cooperative banks; and 32 State cooperative banks.
The cooperatives provided credit to 3.09 crore farmers during 2011-12 when compared with only 2.55 crore farmers by commercial banks and 82 lakh by the regional rural banks.
The cooperative banks financed 67 lakh new farmers during 2011-12 compared to 21 lakh new farmers by commercial banks and nine lakh by regional rural banks.
Acharya has said loans disbursed by cooperatives was Rs 28,467, compared to Rs 1.15 lakh of commercial banks and Rs 66,000 of regional rural banks in 2011-12.
Acharya makes a particular mention of the fact that cooperatives are increasingly supporting the neglected ,weaker and excluded category of small and marginal farmers who are holding close to 85 per cent of total land holdings and 44 per cent of the total cultivable are of our country.