The meeting of the Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Cooperation to conduct a Study on “Relevance, applicability and retention of a three-tier Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCS)” was held last week at the NABARD’s headquarters in Mumbai.
It was held under the chairmanship of Nabard Chairman Shaji K V, in which RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, NCCT Secretary Mohan Mishra, Nafscob Managing Director Bhima Subrahmanyam were also present as its members.
The meeting lasted more than two hours and participants deliberated on the responses received from State Cooperative Banks, DCCBs, PACS on the relevance of a three-tier short term cooperative credit structure with respect to the Indian Cooperative Movement.
Talking to the Indian Cooperative, one of the participants said, “We have got responses from more than 22 state cooperative banks, 190 DCCBs and many PACCs on the relevance of the three-tier structure. The replies are overwhelmingly positive as the majority of them favour a three-tier structure”, he said.
“Many meetings will be organized physically as well as virtually to consider feedback about a three tier structure. We hope that the draft will be prepared by the end of May,” he added.
It is worth mentioning that for the past many years, Sahakar Bharati has been raising a voice against the abolition of three tier structure but with the creation of a new ministry of cooperation, this has gained momentum leading to the formation of an expert committee on the issue.
Meanwhile, there are a few states like Kerala, Nagaland, Assam that have adopted the two-tier structure i.e. PACCs are directly accountable to the apex banks. Several co-operators are of the view that in the case of Kerala Bank, the formula of the two tier structure has failed to work.
The states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand are willing to adopt the two tier structure but the proposal has been gathering dust in respective state secretariats.
The first meeting of the Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Cooperation to conduct a Study on “Relevance, applicability and retention of three-tier Short Term Cooperative Credit Structures (STCS)” was held in July last year at the NABARD’s headquarters in Mumbai.
Maharastra is the Best example of 3 tier Rural Coop Structure and two tier is not possible here at all !