All Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks across the state would be inspected and strict action would be taken against erring officials, said Cooperation Minister I. Periyasamy, here on Friday.
Addressing the mediapersons, he said that there are a total of 4,451 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies in the state. For the past 10 years, not many new members joined the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks. But, new members will be enrolled in the coming months and 30% of loans will be offered to be members as per rules.
He charged that there was a discrimination while offering loans under the previous government. Only a few people repeatedly received loans, he said. There are several discrepancies in loan waiver that was announced during last government. Although the previous government claimed that all agricultural cooperative loans were digitised, the system was improper. These loans were not linked online with the Central Cooperatives Bank.
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Many Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks were functioning without sufficient funds. So how can these banks offer loans to farmers? So officials have been directed to inspect these discrepancies, he said.