With Haryana debarring cooperative loan defaulters from contesting elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), State-owned HARCO expects loan recovery to the tune of Rs300-Rs400 crore.
“As the contestants will have to clear debt to fight upcoming Panchayat polls in Haryana, we are hopeful of recovering debt to the tune of Rs300-Rs400 crore,” said Haryana State Cooperative Apex Bank (HARCO) Managing Director C M Singal.
As nomination process for the Panchayat elections has started, people who wish to contest elections are making beeline for getting No Objection Certificate (NOC) after clearing their debt. So far, from Karnal district alone, about Rs1.90 crore of cooperative loan has been recovered.
In Haryana, cooperative loan default is pegged at about Rs4,500 crore which has been overdue for last several years.
HARCO extends long term as well as short term loans to farmers, rural artisans, farm labourers etc. Its network comprises 13 branches, 19 central cooperative banks with 594 branches and 634 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies.
The Haryana Assembly had passed a “historic” legislation - Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015, on September 7. Besides fixing minimum educational qualification for elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions, the legislation also debars candidates from contesting PRI elections if they fail to clear their cooperative loan dues towards any Primary Agriculture Co-Operative Society and arrears of electricity bills.
Elections would be conducted for 393 posts of members of 20 zila parishads, 2,932 posts of 123 panchayat samitis, and 6,197 and 62,471 posts of sarpanches and panches, respectively.