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Bengal

Bengal the co-op bank leader in India: Mitra

Kolkata: State Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra said on Monday that Bengal is a leader when it comes to cooperative movement in the country, with Nadia district in Bengal winning recognition from the Union government in this regard.

He lauded the cooperative banks in the state for achieving a Credit Deposit (CD) ratio higher than the national average.

"The cooperative banks in the state have done a commendable job. The national CD ratio of cooperative banks stand at 70 percent, while that in the state is 81.16 percent," Mitra said while addressing the inaugural programme of Samabay Mela (Cooperative Fair) at Netaji indoor Stadium, which also marks the centenary year of cooperative banks in the state.

Mitra urged the Cooperation department to increase the agricultural loan disbursement target by Rs 1,000 crore, to Rs 8,000 crore in the next year.

"The state Cooperation department is in the process of disbursing agricultural loan to the extent of Rs 5,900 crore in the 2018-19 financial year. Our target for the 2019-20 fiscal is Rs 7,000 crore, while the state Finance minister has urged us to up the target to Rs 8,000 crore," state Cooperation minister Arup Roy said.

Highlighting the stellar performance of the cooperative banks that has played an important role in agriculture and rural development in the state, Mitra said: "The crop loan disbursed was Rs 1,388 crore during 2010-11. It has jumped to Rs 3,385 crore now. Similarly, loan to self-help groups (SHGs) was Rs 129 crore when our government took over. It has now increased to Rs 612 crore".

Mitra also touched upon the performance of the 39 urban cooperative banks. "The performance of the urban cooperative banks is also laudable. The deposit in these banks stands at Rs 4,492 crore and the loan outstanding is Rs 2,372 crore," he maintained, adding that it is a clear indication that the urban cooperatives are also progressing side-by-side with their rural counterparts.

The paddy procurement, according to Mitra, has also risen to 5.08 lakh MT from 1.97 lakh MT in 2010-11.

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