Tamil Nadu Cooperative Minister I Periyasamy on Wednesday stated that the federal government has set a goal of disbursing Rs.11,500 crore loans to farmers through cooperative banks this fiscal year.
The government also intends to increase the share of cooperative banks' mortgage disbursements to farmers from 9.5 percent to 22-25 percent during the next five years.
During the debate on funding for the cooperative division, he was responding to previous cooperative minister Sellur Okay Raju's assertions. The minister told that when the DMK was in power, the cooperative banks had a farmers' mortgage stake of 15-16 percent. It worsened during the AIADMK regime.
The minister said that since the DMK took power, cooperative societies had enlisted 2.33 lakh additional members. It also distributed Rs.120 crore in loans to the new members. He went on to say that Rs.80 crore had been extended as loans to farmers in the delta areas who wanted to start growing kuruvai.
He said it was more than double the amount (Rs.37 crore) spent on kuruvai cultivation the previous year.
He stated, "The CM has made it clear that new members should be given loans." He recounted how, under M Karunanidhi's leadership, the DMK revitalised the cooperative banks by waiving farmers' loans of Rs.7,000 crore.
He criticized the previous AIADMK government for installing 4,000 godowns but failing to put them to use. He claimed that the DMK government was using them to store 5 lakh tonnes of paddy obtained from farmers.
In response to Sellur Raju's claim that the division had performed well over the last ten years, Periyasamy pointed out that only ten central cooperative banks had made a profit. He stated that 13 others were on the verge of bankruptcy.
