Bengaluru: Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H K Patil on Wednesday called upon cooperative banks to focus on creating jobs and avoid harassing borrowers.
Speaking after inaugurating 21st branch of City Cooperative Bank at Magadi Road, Minister Patil has emphasized the need to create more and more jobs and avoid harassing borrowers. “Cooperative banks performance is better than public sector banks. While public sector banks have 10 per cent of non-productive accounts, cooperative banks have only seven percent of non-productive accounts. Indira Gandhi had nationalized private banks with the objective to provide loan for the needy and not for corporate sector. I want the banks to work for the welfare of poor and needy people in society,’’ the minister said.
Coming down heavily on public sector banks for demanding a lot documents and collateral guarantee while sanctioning loans for the small and medium industries and petty businesspersons, he said the public sector banks had sanctioned loans worth Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore to Vijay Mallya who becomes willful defaulter. “It is quite amusing to see banks demanding various documents while sanctioning loans to poor people,’’ he said.
He advised the management of City Cooperative Bank to sanction loans for pushcart vendors and vegetable sellers by conducting a survey in the city.
