The apex body of State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks-Nafscob organized its 58th Annual General Meeting at Mumbai in which several national level cooperative leaders including NCUI President Dileep Sanghani, Kribhco Chairman Chandra Pal Singh, Nafed Chairman Bijendra Singh, Gujarat strongman G H Amin, Biscomaun Chairman Sunil Kumar Singh, among others, participated.
On the occasion Nafscob organized a one-day seminar on “Future of Rural Cooperative Banks” in which Nabard Chairman Dr G R Chintala was the chief guest and delivered the keynote address.
Talking to Indian Cooperative K Ravindra Rao, Chairman, Nafscob said, “It was a fruitful meeting and the issues pertaining to state cooperative banks and DCCBs were discussed at length by the eminent dignitaries present on the dais. It was decided in the meeting to hand over the list of demands of this sector to the Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah soon.”
“Besides, the National seminar was aimed at facilitating a wide range of consultations on important issues related to the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act 2020, to Statutory Provisions applicable to State Cooperative Banks (SCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs). the Ministry of Cooperation: Vision and Mission/ Objectives & Functions: where do RCBs stand?”, he informed.
Rao said “consultations also dealt with delaying: Amalgamation/Merger of DCCBs in SCBs- A 3 decades-long directives?!, Constitutional (97th Amendment) Act 2011 Vs Supreme Court Verdict 2021, Policy, Monetary, Regulatory and Supervisory Measures to address issues emerging out of the spread of COVID-19-Impact Assessment and Issues related to Governance and management in SCBs & DCCBs and Adoption of Technology”.
In his keynote address, Nabard Chairman G R Chintala urged the co-op banks representatives to bring professionalism and adopt the latest technology in banking activities, to compete with the commercial banks. There is a need to bring new ideas for running the day-to-day activities, said Ravindra while highlighting some of the nuggets of the Nabard Chairman’s speech.
It is worth mentioning that during FY2021, NABARD disbursed a total of Rs 1,30,964 crore to state cooperative banks (StCBs) and RRBs (with respective shares of 77.2% and 22.8%) under short-term (ST) refinance facilities to enable them to meet production and working capital requirements of farmers, weavers, and artisans
More than 70 participants representing various cooperative banks were present. NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak, Vamnicom Director Dr. Hema Yadav, Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank Chairman Dan Singh Rawat, GM Deepak Kumar, Mizoram SCB Chairperson T. Lalmuanpuii, Himachal Pradesh STCB Chairman Khushi Ram Balnatah, and others also attended the program.
Sadly, Nafscob kept media away with even the only sole news portal on cooperatives- www.indiancooperative.com receiving no intimation of the event.
Meeting was very conducive in present scenario of banking in co-op sector