“Cooperative institutions have improved their functioning”

Ko.Si. Mani gave an account of various measures taken by the government

April 16, 2010 01:18 am | Updated 01:18 am IST - CHENNAI

All cooperative institutions in the State have improved their functioning and service to their members because of the “uncompromising measures” of the State Government, Ko.Si. Mani, Cooperation Minister, informed the Assembly.

Initiating a debate on the demand for grants to his department, the Minister gave an account of various measures taken by the government to improve the cooperative institutions. Among such steps were the implementation of a revival package for short term cooperative credit structure, farm loan waiver, total interest subvention for prompt repayment of crop loan, provision of soft loans to financially weaker cooperative societies for launching new lines of business and restructuring of their borrowings.

The number of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACS), with an outstanding of over Rs. 1 crore, went up from 852 as on March 31, 2006 to 2,886 as on February 28, 2010. The PACS had become multi functional organisations instead of merely disbursing credit. Similarly, agricultural marketing cooperative societies had improved their business volume and started earning profit during 2009-2010, he said.

Six hundred and nineteen branches out of 736 branches of the District Central Cooperative Banks had migrated to computerised platform as on February 28, 2010, and the process was expected to be completed by May 31.

As for crop loans disbursed by the PACS, it was programmed to disburse Rs.2, 000 crore of crop loan and Rs.162 crore of investment credit for agricultural and allied sector during 2009-2010.

As on February 28, the crop loan of Rs.2, 013.55 crore and medium term loan of Rs.104.97 crore were issued to farmers.

About 8,36,633 farmers had been benefited under crop loan. Of this, a sum of Rs.606.88 crore was given to 2,53,373 farmers who could not avail themselves of crop loan from the cooperative institutions in recent years, the Minister said, adding that the PACS would disburse crop loan of Rs. 2,500 crore this year.

During the debate, K.A. Sengottaiyan (AIADMK) and Peter Alphonse (Congress) disputed each other's version of the revival package of the Sivagangai District Central Co-operative Bank. Eventually, Speaker R. Avudaiappan asked them to submit documents in support of their contention on Friday.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.