launching a counter offensive on Congress allegations based on a CD containing Narco test of a Manager of now defunct Indira Priyadarshini Cooperative Bank, State BJP’s Co-operatives Cell President Ashok Bajaj on Wednesday said that it was during the Congress regime in Chhattisgarh in 2003 that the District Co-operatives Central Bank in Raigarh went under while rendering 300 of its employees jobless.
“When the District Co-operatives Central Bank in Raigarh shut down, a total of 86 farmers and other depositors lost Rs 20 crore. Thereafter, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) demanded a guarantee from the then Congress Government in the State to revive the bank; the Government did not provide the guarantee,’ Bajaj told mediapersons at a news conference here. He said that the then Congress Government did not even provide any financial package to revive the bank. ‘In case of the Indira Priyadarshini Co-operative Bank, the Congress is making the poll pitch on returning the money of the depositors if it is voted to power which is laughable’, Bajaj said.
“When the BJP came to power in Chhattisgarh, the Primary Co-operative committees were already declared as defaulters for which a financial package for their revival was devised,” he said. Bajaj further stated that out of the 1,355 Co-operative committees in Chhattisgarh, 70 per cent of them were declared as defaulters during the Congress regime in the State. “A financial package announced by Dr Raman Singh Government helped to revive the Co-operative committees. The State Government had also set up a Committee for re-organization of the committees”, he said.
Bajaj said that efforts are underway to revive the District Co-operatives Central Bank in Raigarh by the State Government. “There is a move underway to repose faith of people in the Co-operatives movement in the State.” He said that the Co-operative banks in Bilaspur, Raipur and Surguja district have already been saved by Dr Raman Singh Government from closing down.