Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar has said that the State government is committed to restoring normality in the functioning of the Shivamogga District Cooperative Central (SDCC) Bank.
Mr. Ratnakar was speaking after inaugurating a programme organised by SDCC Bank to disburse agricultural loans to farmers here on Sunday.
Earlier, after the alleged scam related to the issuance of gold loan was unearthed at SDCC Bank on July 2014, its customers had withdrawn deposits worth Rs. 109-crore from the bank owing to panic that had gripped them. The huge withdrawals had severely affected the lending operations in the bank.
ADVERTISEMENT
Referring to this, Mr. Rathnakar said, to ensure normalcy in lending, the State government had decided to release Rs. 28 crore it owes to the bank for advancing subsidised crop loans to farmers in 2013-14. In addition, the Karnataka State Apex Cooperative Bank had decided to release Rs. 75 crore as a special financial assistance to the SDCC Bank, he said.
The SDCC Bank had advanced loans worth Rs. 315 crore in 2013-14. In 2014-15, it has so far advanced loans to the tune of Rs. 220 crore. As the SDCC Bank was functioning as per the regulations of the Department of Cooperation, the customers should not have any apprehensions about the safety of their deposits. He urged the elected directors of the administrative board of SDCC Bank and its officials to strive to regain the confidence of customers.
R.M. Manjunatha Gowda, president of the Karnataka State Apex Cooperative Bank, said in his address that the customer too owe Rs. 660 crore to the SDCC Bank. Of this, Rs. 283 crore had been advanced as agriculture loan, Rs. 267 crore advanced to farmers as non-crop loans and Rs. 47 crore was given as loan for self-help groups.
ADVERTISEMENT
The operations of SDCC Bank and its branches would be computerised by the end of this month. The RuPay credit cards would be provided to all farmers, who were the bank’s customers. Through those cards, the bank would provide loans in the coming days, he said.
Mr. Ratnakar requested the State government to direct the district administration and the zilla panchayat to conduct their banking operations through SDCC Bank.
Talliatte Manjunath, president of SDCC Bank and Deputy Director of the Department of Cooperation Sunitha Siddaram were present.
Apex bank to provide special financial assistance of Rs. 75 crore to SDCC Bank
All operations in the bank and its branches to be soon computerised