After Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Punjab now it’s the turn of Uttar Pradesh State Government to merge the 50 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) with the apex bank Uttar Pradesh State Cooperative Bank.
The State government has setup a high powered committee under the leadership of Associate Professor Vikas Srivastava of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow, to formulate a policy in this regard. Meanwhile committee has been also asked to give its recommendation within two months.
One of the officials of cooperative department said that this committee will bring out the weaknesses, challenges by reviewing the merger of these banks. The committee will give its detailed report. Later on, the cabinet will oversee the committee report and will think on the merger process.
Besides Srivastava, committee member includes Retired Add. Registrar Cooperative, Retired CGM NABARD, Convener Bank of Baroda, Lucknow, Cooperative Secretary Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank Managing Director and others.
Earlier, Reserve Bank of India had given approval for merging the six DCCBs of Chhattisgarh with State Cooperative Bank- the apex banking entity in the state. Jharkhand has already done so, Punjab is in process to merger 20 DCCBs of state with Punjab State Cooperative Bank and Kerala is in the process of merger. Sahakar Bharati argument against the Kerala DCCBs merger went for a toss when several BJP states have themselves subscribed to the idea now.
Addressing a function organized on the occasion of 65th All India Cooperative Week State Cooperative Minister Mukut Bihari Verma said that till January 1200 branches of cooperative banks and District cooperative banks will be made online. The merger and the modernization would go hand in hand, he stressed.
There is a budget of about Rs 12 billion for ushering in turnaround in these cooperative institutions baulked down by liquidity crunch, nonperforming assets (NPA), lack of resources etc, says a report of Business Standard.