NAFCARD: Dollar Kotecha elected Chairman of apex body of Kheti Banks

Dollarbhai Kotecha has been elected unopposed as the Chairman of National Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Banks Federation (NAFCARD), in an election held on Monday in Mumbai.

Kotecha is representing Gujarat State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, popularly known as Kheti Bank. The NAFCARD had recently drawn the media attention when Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah participated in their event organized at the NCUI Auditorium.

Besides, the four Vice-Chairmen and other directors have also been elected unanimously. Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank Chairman K Ravinder Rao, Tamil Nadu Cooperative State ARDB Chairman R Parimel Azhagan, Punjab State Cooperative ARDB Chairman CA Suresh Goyal and West Bengal State Cooperative ARDB’s Moinul Hassan have been elected as its Vice-Chairmen.

Soon after the election, talking to the Indian Cooperative the newly elected Chairman Dollarbhai Kotecha said, “I am very thankful to our board members and others for again reposing faith in me and giving me such a big responsibility. I will fulfil their expectations”.

“We work together to strengthen the Agriculture and Rural Development Bank. We are looking forward to working with the Government of India for their development”, said Kotecha on the phone.

As soon as his name was announced as the new Chairman, his followers and others lost no time in extending warm greetings to him.

The term of the newly elected team will be of five years. The new board is dominated by old hands and only a few are newcomers.

There are 16 State Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs) of which 13 claim a network of 794 branches. Most of these branches are in Uttar Pradesh. These banks have a membership base of more than 88 lakh.

The total loans and borrowings outstanding of these banks as of 31.03.2021 were Rs 20,926 crores and Rs 12,893 crores respectively. As of 31st March 2021, the total deposits of these SCARDBs stood at Rs 2,238 crores. NCARDB has its headquarters in Navi Mumbai.

It bears recalling that soon after taking over as the Union Cooperation Minister, Amit Shah is advocating more active role for Kheti Banks. Shah has been talking of synergy between Kheti Banks with PACS, an idea which can revolutionize the rural credit structure.

Interestingly, the newly elected Chairman Kotecha is said to be close to Shah, paving the way for fast transformation of Kheti Banks across states, said a prominent Gujarat co-operator seeking anonymity.