PM urged to revoke restrictions on co-operative banks

Highlighting difficulties faced by farmers in sowing Rabi crops and paddy purchase, Bihar Cooperative Minister Alok Mehta today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow cooperative banks to accept the demontised high value notes.
A copy of the letter was also sent to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Mehta told reporters here.
He said RBI, through a notification on November 14, had prohibited exchange and deposit of the now defunct Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in cooperative banks, which has affected the farmers.
The order has created a lot of problems for farmers in sowing Rabi crops and also to purchase paddy in the state.

It has also created a crisis for the farmers' families and hampered farm activities carried with the help of Primary Agriculture Committees in the state, the minister said.
Mehta said that last year cooperative banks had regulated paddy purchase of over Rs 3,000 crore. This year in view of the record production of paddy there is expectation of this amount exceeding to Rs 4,000 crore.

He urged the Prime Minister to consider the gravity of the problem and order revoking the RBI order on cooperative banks.
A total 1.16 crore farmers, mostly marginal and small, are served by cooperative banks in Bihar.

There are 22 central cooperative banks in the state in which 8463 PACs and 521 trading councils are linked.