Top leaders of Sahakar Bharati are meeting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam on virtual platform today on Thursday in the second half to discuss a host of issues concerning the cooperative sector.
The issues to be raised are exclusion of the co-operative banking sector from the scheme of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), connecting PACs and dairy co-ops in villages to the National Payment Gateway System, raising limit of gold loan for UCB to Rs 25 lakh from 2 lakh, inclusion of NCDC in the list, among others. Creation of a separate desk for co-ops in the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry is another issue which would be taken up.
Indian Cooperative has gathered that besides Sahakar Bharti President Ramesh Vaidya and National Secretary Uday Joshi, Satish Marathe, Jyotindra Mehta and Sanjay Pachpor would be representing the co-op body.
The result of the meeting would be made available to the media once the meeting is over. Joshi is the spokesman for the meeting.
It bears recall that the Economy Cell of RSS discussed the matter of exclusion of the co-operative banking sector from the scheme of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) recently and it was decided to communicate its observations to the govt on the issue for a rethink.
The Economy Cell of Sangh comprises its affiliates active in the field of economic activities including banking. Sahakar Bharati is also part of the Cell.
Sahakar Bharati is believed to have put forth its objection to the exclusion of UCBs strongly before the participants in the meeting, source added. A virtual meeting of these leaders with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was proposed here.
Sahakar Bharati feels that the discrimination against the UCBs in the matter is palpable as among all the categories of banks, only UCBs were excluded from the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.
Earlier, a Webinar of NCDC, NAFCUB, NAFSCOB and Sahakar Bharati also deliberated on the issue and sent a letter to the Ministry expressing their unhappiness over the matter.
One of the founding members of Sahakar Bharati Satish Marathe who doubles as RBI Board member has publicly expressed his displeasure with the govt decision. Donning his Sahakar Bharati identity Marathe wrote on social media saying “Sadly the entire CoOp Banking still remains excluded from the Scheme despite the fact their total exposure to Priority Sector Lending exceeds 50%.”
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of MSMEs is also in favour of inclusion of urban cooperative banks in the scheme. “ In fact he has been trying hard for the last 2-3 years but to no avail”, said a source quoting the Department of Financial Services as the villain of the piece.
