The cooperative sector in the district has rolled out the State government’s initiatives to ease the hassles being faced by the customers of primary cooperative banks, cooperative societies and primary credit cooperative societies following the demonetisation crisis.
A mass convention of governing body members of different cooperative banks backed by the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF, representatives of employees’ associations, merchants and trading community held here on Thursday resolved to assist the deposit holders by offering facilities such as cheques, demand drafts, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system via the Kozhikode District Cooperative Bank (KDC- Bank) for retail spending and commercial purposes.
Depositors will be given photo identity cards containing details of the account number and the amount allowed for withdrawal. The card can be used at private commercial establishments, Consumerfed, Civil Supplies Corporation, Maveli Stores and Horticorp for their daily needs. Besides, they will be provided cheques guaranteed by the banks for using them at hospitals, jewellery showrooms, for marriages and other requirements.
Primary cooperative bank depositors can also open accounts at the KDC Bank complying with the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and they will be allowed to withdraw money as directed by the Reserve Bank of India. Transactions can be done by an account holder after opening mirror accounts at the KDC Bank.
Deposit mobilisation
The convention also decided to observe a month-long cooperation protection campaign from December 10 to January 10. A deposit mobilisation drive will be held during this period. The State-level inauguration will be held in Malappuram on December 10.
Kozhikode has 105 primary cooperative banks and 580 cooperative societies. The KDC has 63 branches in the district. There are 3.83 lakh cooperative bank account holders in Kozhikode.
Inaugurating the convention, A. Pradeepkumar, MLA, pointed out that the Centre’s decision on demonetisation was taken without the concurrence of the Parliament. Consumerfed chairman M. Mehaboob said the currency crunch had hit the livelihood of farmers and workers.
KDC Bank president Manayath Chandran said nearly 68 per cent of the cooperative bank deposits in the country was in Kerala. Unlike the scheduled commercial banks, the cooperative banks formed the backbone of the people with over 30-odd welfare schemes.
V.K.C. Mammed Koya, MLA, District Panchayat president Babu Parassery, CPI(M) leader M. Bhaskaran and KPCC general secretary N. Subramanian were present at the convention.
