Reacting strongly to Vidydhar Anaskar’s idea of Nabard controlling UCBs, the Executive Committee of Sahakar Bharati held an emergency meeting on Sunday and passed a resolution rejecting the idea hook, line and sinker.
On condition of anonymity, one of the senior leaders of Sahakar Bharati said “we would foil all attempts of Shri Anaskar to hijack the urban cooperative movement by seeking the support of Nitin Gadkariji on the sly.”
Anaskar had recently held a webinar along with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari where the idea of Nabard, not RBI’s–control of UCBs were discussed. Innocent of the impending complications of such a move Shri Gadkari asked Anaskar to prepare a note which he promised to take up with everyone concerned-RBI, Union Finance Minister or even the Prime Minister. Indian Cooperative had covered the story exhaustively.
In the meeting of Sahakar Bharati which was presided over by Ramesh Vaidya, its President it was passed that “the recent avoidable debate amongst a section of the UCBs, particularly in Maharashtra, about the proposal to designate NABARD as Regulator of the UCB Sector is most unfortunate.”
The press note sent by Sahakar Bharati on the issue read “After detailed deliberations, it was unanimously resolved as under and it was further decided to communicate the same to Associations and Federations of Urban CoOp Banks across the Country.”
“After years of persuasion, the GOI has moved Bill to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to give full Regulatory Powers to the RBI. The Lok Sabha has already passed the Amendment Bill and the same would be considered by the Rajya Sabha when it is reconvened for the Monsoon Session”, the resolution read.
Moreover, the matter of having a separate Regulator other than the RBI had long back been debated and the same has been unanimously rejected by the UCB Sector, it added.
“When new opportunities for Growth, Development and Resolution in times of crisis are anticipated, with the passage of the Amendment Bill, proposal to designate NABARD as Regulator is most outlandish and inappropriate, said the press release. Sahakar Bharati totally rejects this proposal and also calls upon all UCBs, Associations and Federations of UCBs to reject the same in toto”, it added.
Signed by Dr Uday Joshi, National General Secretary, the note concludes “Resolution Passed Unanimously”.
Interestingly, Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta who is Patron of Sahakar Bharti was also present in the meeting. Anaskar is Vice-President of the same body -NAFCUB but the two are clearly not on the same page in the matter.
Reactions on Anaskar proposal have also come from various other co-op bodies and individual co-operators. All of them seem to disagree with him. Indian Cooperative would publish each of them in the course of time.