The Hindu : `Officials stalling plan on rural bank'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 15, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

`Officials stalling plan on rural bank'

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELLARY April 14. Komal Singh, General Secretary, All-India Grameen Bank Officers' Organisation, has accused the bureaucracy of coming in the way of setting up a separate national bank for rural development.

Mr. Singh, who was here to participate in the annual general body meeting of the Tungabhadra Grameena Bank Officers' and Workers' Organisation, at Bala Bharati school premises, was speaking to presspersons here today.

He advocated setting up such a bank, and said that it could cater to the requirements of people in villages, and ensure development of the rural economy. The proposal, which was before the Union Government, was being delayed by the bureaucracy, though the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, had given a positive response to the proposal, he alleged.

According to him, when Regional Rural Bank (RRB) employees took out a rally and met Mr. Jaswant Singh, a couple of months ago, and urged him to set up a "National Rural Bank of India", by amalgamating all the 196 RRBs, the latter instructed officials to look into the matter and submit a report. They submitted a report stating that the proposal was unviable, he said.

He was of the view that there would not be any financial burden on the Union Government for setting up the proposed bank. He said that for the purpose, funds to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crore were necessary while the accumulated reserves of all the profit-making RRBs (174) was about Rs. 1,200 crore. This could be utilised for the purpose, he added.

Mr. Singh took exception to the deputation of officials of commercial/sponsor banks to RRBs, as recommended by the committee headed by K.P. Agarwal, Chief General Manager of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), and said it had affected personnel of grameena banks. The deputation had stalled recruitment, slowed down promotions to staff members, affected their morale, he said.

Replying to a question, he said that there would not be any impact on the financial position of RRBs if they were freed from control of sponsor banks.

He said the recommendations of the Chalapati Rao Committee, appointed by the Union Government,were detrimental to the interest of the rural credit system.

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