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OTS to continue till March 31

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE NOV. 16. The Cooperation Minister, M.V. Raghavan, has said that the one-time settlement (OTS) for loans overdue to cooperative banks would be on till March 31, 2004.

Talking to reporters here today, the Minister said an amount of Rs. 653 crores had been collected through the first OTS.

The loanees had got a benefit for Rs. 45 crores through the waiving of fine.

He expressed the hope that the farmers would make use of the second OTS now that the agriculture scenario had improved.

He said that action would be taken against those service cooperative banks, which were not implementing the Government order on the OTS.

He said the UDF Government was trying to bring down the share ratio in cooperative banks to 1 per cent.

In view of the Cooperation Week, being observed from November 14 to 20, the interests on loans had been reduced to 8.5 per cent in primary cooperative banks.

Moreover, interest rates of those who repay the loan on time would be slashed by one per cent.

Also, senior citizens could avail of 0.5 per cent more interest on their deposits with the cooperative banks.

Congress crisis

On the crisis in the State Congress, Mr. Raghavan said the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, had told the IUML leader, E. Ahmed, that the problems would be solved by December 1.

"Mr. Ahmed told me today that Ms. Gandhi had assured him of solving the crisis by December 1.''

Asked whether there was a `halt to governance' in the State, he replied in the negative.

He added that the problems in the Congress should be settled by the Congressmen themselves.

The Minister earlier inaugurated the Port Guest House on the Beach Road here.

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