Don't privatize co-operative banks, writes Sharad Pawar to PM

-These banks help laborers and farmers

New Delhi 19th August 2020 Wednesday

NCP chief and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar had written a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him not to privatize the co-operative banks, please ... these banks help village laborers and farmers.

For some time now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been merging and privatizing banks. Sharad Pawar wrote the letter in this regard. Pawar argued that co-operative banks were the backbone of the country's villages and therefore their status quo was declining. In addition, co-operative banks were increasing banking literacy in rural areas, i.e. the process of explaining the benefits of banks to the people in rural areas was being done by such co-operative banks.

In his nationwide address on August 15, the Prime Minister said that co-operative banks were also being brought under the purview of the Reserve Bank. In this context, Pawar wrote that the government's attitude that co-operative banks should also have financial discipline is commendable but it is desirable to maintain the existing structure and character of co-operative banks.

It is not right for the Reserve Bank to have one hundred percent control over the co-operative banks. Pawar wrote that co-operative banks are a boon for farm laborers, farmers and villagers.

The economic transactions of hundreds of villages in the country have been done by the co-operative banks and thus the co-operative banks have made a valuable contribution in keeping the rural economy alive. Pawar urged the Prime Minister not to privatize the co-operative banks.

He argued that the notion that privatization of co-operative banks would stop money laundering overnight was not true. Pawar, citing RBI figures, said that the lowest financial irregularities in co-operative banks were in 2019-20, according to the RBI itself.