NABARD grands Rs 1,500 crore assistance to APCOB

Vijayawada, Aug 31 (UNI) All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Vice-President Kolli Nageswara Rao today said NABARD had agreed to extend Rs 1,500 crore assistance to Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Bank (APCOB) for surmounting crisis of cooperative societies in the state.

Addressing mediapersons he said, the state government has also said the cooperative societies would work under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act 1995 (MACSA), instead of 1964 Act, to function freely without government's interference.

If the cooperative societies worked under 1995 MACSA Act, the huge amount of NABARD assistance would be misused due to vast freedom given to them without government control, Mr Rao said.

He appealed the state government that the cooperative societies should operate with limited government control, otherwise they would fall on the lines like Krushi bank and other urban banks, posing a threat to depositors.

He appealed, the NABARD funds should be utilised properly for the revival of cooperative banks which had been very helpful to farmers and rural folk, besides protecting the depositors.

He said that earlier, 9,000 cooperative societies existed in the state. During the tenure of Ex-Chief Minister N T Rama Rao, they were curtailed to 50 per cent under single window system and further reduced to 2,746 by Congress government on the guise of lack of financial viablities of some societies.

Mr Rao welcomed the NABARD's financial assistance of Rs 14,000 crore to revive the cooperative societies in the country, out of which the state got Rs 1,500 crore.

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