Amid chanting of Vedic hymns, Chief Minister Harish Rawat laid the foundation stone of the main building of Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank limited in Haldwani on Saturday. Among others, the State Finance Minister, Indira Hridayesh, and State Cooperative Minister, Yashpal Arya were present.
In his address, CM said that cooperative is a movement. “If rural India is to be developmentally transformed such a movement is a must. All members of the cooperatives will have to strive hard to rope small and medium farmers in for their betterment,” he said.
Stressing on the role of cooperatives, he said they have achieved several benchmarks in fields like agriculture, dairy and agriculture-based industries in the national and international arena. “The State Government would give full autonomy to the cooperative institutions operating here. The cooperatives would be partners in the State’s development. In their works, the State Government would not meddle to ensure they grow in their own ways,” CM said.
“Besides, to make cooperative committee more beneficial, we would prepare a draft aside from constituting active committees. The number of the members would be increased too,” he said.
Mentioning that as per the data, the cooperative banks had disbursed loan to the tune of `1,000 crore in the last financial year, the CM said the target is `1,500 crore loan for this financial year.
Speaking of the demands being raised by the cooperatives, the CM assured that he would allocate `65 crore to the cooperative sector in the supplementary budget. “It would help the cooperative banks better their financial position,” he said.
Saying that it is time to think and act different, out of the box, CM asked the cooperative banks to adopt remote villages and open branches there. “This might prove a bulwark against migration from the remote villages,” he said.
Finance minister Indira Hridayesh said that the interests of the farmers would be dealt with on priority basis. “If you execute the CM’s announcement on the ground I would see to it that `65 crore is granted for the cooperatives in the supplementary budget,” she said.
Taking a dig at the Centre for withdrawing Uttarakhand’s special category state status, she said had things not been so the State Government would have been able to provide houses for all the poor.
Cooperative minister Yashpal Arya said that cooperative is a mission through which rural India can be transformed.
Speaking of the State Government’s achievement on this count, he said that they have formed state warehouse corporation aside from state cooperative weavers’ committee and state housing development committee in the year 2014. He demanded fund for the state housing committee, adding that he also demanded `65 crore to be spent under cooperative schemes. “The banks are disbursing loans to the farmers and entrepreneurs at low interest rate,” he said.
Stressing on the role of self -help groups (SHG), he said they should be roped in to give impetus to the cooperative movement. “This would in turn check migration by generating employment opportunity,” he said.
Uttarakhand state cooperative bank limited chairman Sanjeev Arya said that cooperative banks have 260 branches and 813 mini- branches spread across the state and over 18 lakh members are connected with cooperatives. last year, the bank had disbursed `1,000 crore by way of loans and this year their target is `1,350 crore, he said. “Besides, we have disbursed 3.80 crore kisan credit cards. Bank has made profit of `60 crore in the last financial year. Enthused by it, RBI has given approval to open 13 more branches in the state. Things would start soon,” he said.
He claimed that the bank has adopted 260 villages. He demanded the state Government to help them with opening ATMs in all the 13 Tehsils headquarters.
Among other dignitaries present o the occasion were parliamentary secretary and MlA Sarita Arya, district panchayat president Sumitra Prasad, MlA lalit Farswan, disaster management chairman Prayag Dutt Bhatt, Uttarkahand State Cooperative Bank ltd’s vice- chairman Manvendra Singh, cooperative bank chairman Rajendra Singh Negi, Subhash Behad, Ranbir Singh Rawat, Arjun Singh Bisht, Upendra Singh, Pramod Kumar Singh, Hayat Singh Mahra, Ghanshyam Nautiyal, Prashant Bhaishoda, Dalbahadur Bafila, Garhwal commissioner AS Nayal, DIG Pushakar Singh Sailal, district magistrate Deepak Rawat, SSP D Senthil Abhudai and CDO lalit Mohan Rayal.