Sunday, 09 July 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Rs 49.22 crore interest amount on outstanding loans of dead account holders to be exempted
The Uttarakhand government has decided to waive off an interest amounting to Rs 49.22 crore on the outstanding loans of the cooperative credit societies where the loanees have died. The cooperatives minister Dhan Singh Rawat launched the Multipurpose Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (MPACS) one time settlement (OTS) scheme on Saturday.
Interacting with the media persons the minister claimed that Uttarakhand has become the first State in the country where such a scheme has been launched. Informing about the OTS scheme, the minister said that there are 31,221 such cases since the year 1950 where the borrower of the loan has died without clearing the dues. The interest amount on these accounts continues to accumulate. Rawat said that under the OTS scheme the dependents of the loanees would only have to pay the principal loan amount and all the interest accumulated so far would be waived off.
The scheme would also ensure return of Rs 74.18 crore of the Principal amount to the credit societies. Rawat said that dependents of these account holders (dead) would be able to take fresh loans and the benefit of Deen Dayal Upadhayaya credit scheme for farmers under which they can avail interest free loans up to Rs five lakhs. They would also be able to participate in the election process of the cooperative bodies.
The waived off interest would be borne by cooperative banks (40 per cent) and the cooperative societies (60 per cent). Rawat said that the cooperative department will soon launch a campaign to enrol two lakh new members of the cooperative societies. He said that there are 12 lakh members in the cooperative societies in the State. Rawat said that all the 670 cooperative societies would be made eligible to participate in the elections process which would be transparent.
Informing about the recent International cooperative conclave held in New Delhi, the Minister said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inaugurated the conclave gave a call of ‘local to global to the MPACS. Rawat added that the PM also informed that the cooperative movement in the country would be operated by a national policy and a bill regarding this would be brought up during the monsoon session of assembly.
The registrar of cooperatives Alok Kumar Pandey, chairman of district cooperative bank Subhash Ramola, director of State cooperative bank Manoj Patwal, additional registrar Ira Upreti and others were present on the occasion.
