kolkata: The state government has asked the District Magistrates (DMs) to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to review the status of cooperative societies and to chalk out an action plan to activate/revive defunct societies.
The DMs have been asked to review the situation with weavers’ cooperatives in their respective districts and try and increase procurement from them for various government schemes and programmes.
The action points for the district administration regarding the revival of cooperative societies came in the backdrop of a recent meeting chaired by Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi at Nabanna.
The weavers’ cooperative societies (mostly in the districts of Nadia, East Burdwan, Hooghly, Murshidabad etc) are in a precarious condition and most of them have become defunct for want of available credit, dwindling demand for their products etc.
The DMs in a meeting with stakeholders have been asked to assess and take steps for enhancing the capacity of district central cooperative banks to make them robust and better equipped to finance government programmes.
The action points sent to the districts also include necessary intervention by district administration so that the cooperative banks receive deposits from different state government departments, local bodies and corporations.
This will augment the overall scope and capabilities of these banks and their share in priority sector lending and flagship programmes of the state will be spiked.
Presently cooperative banks do not have any government accounts. They pool deposits from farmers and small depositors. Still, these banks are way ahead in extending crop loans, SCC (Student Credit Card) and other priority sectors than that of the PSU Banks/private banks, holding a sizeable chunk of government funds.
According to Nabanna sources, cooperative banks have deployed 14.74 per cent of their deposits in crop loans whereas PSU banks have extended only 1.58 per cent of their deposits in the same area. The district administration has been asked to convene the District Level Implementing & Monitoring Committee for PACS-Computerisation Programme immediately, if not already done, to review the status of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies computerisation.