CHANDIGARH/BATHINDA: Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are facing major problems due to refusal of district cooperative banks to deposit or exchange demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes following a recent directive from the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Some of them are also facing difficulties in getting seeds, fertilizers, diesel and other inputs on account of the massive
cash crunch
caused by 86% of all currency notes made useless. Farmers say sowing of wheat, which is the biggest rabi crop in both Punjab and Haryana, has been affected due to lack of valid currency available. As many as 95% customers of these banks are farmers or from rural areas.
Haryana alone has 594 branches of these banks serving 12.88 lakh customers. "Till now, we have been relying on cooperative banks for all out banking needs but now they are not accepting old notes. What types of banks are these?" says Shradha Nand Solanki, a farmer, who had gone to a cooprative bank in Sonipat on Thursday.
"Now, how would farmers arrange seeds and fertilizers," asked Solanki, who is also vice-president of All India Kisan Sabha's Haryana unit.
Even cooperative bank officials are troubled because of RBI directive as farmers blame them for the problem. "Farmers think that we don't exchange their old notes to force them to bribe us," a bank official said.
Admitting that farmers are facing major problems,
MD of Haryana State Cooperative Apex Bank Ltd
(HARCO bank), Satbir Sharma said that the RBI directive has even affected recoveries of cooperatives.
Haryana's additional chief secretary Alok Nigam hinted that the state was planning to approach the Centre over the issue.
With the central cooperative banks stopping receiving deposits in old currency notes and left with not sufficient notes to give to cooperative societies, their working has come to absolute standstill in Punjab also.
The farmers get various articles from the cooperative societies, which deal with the cooperative banks. The farmers now are facing the heat in arranging money for purchasing seeds and diesel for wheat sowing as earlier they used to get it from cooperative societies.
"Punjab has 820 branches of central cooperative banks and has 3,500 agricultural cooperative societies across 13,000 villages in the state. These cooperative societies have nearly 10 lakh farmers as its members out of which 7.5 lakh are hit the hardest," pointed out managing director of
Punjab State Cooperative Bank Limited
S K Batish.
"I had arranged Rs 60,000 to deposit with the society to repay my loan but the society declined to accept the money saying banks are not accepting old currency notes," said Jatinder Singh, a member of Natheha (Bathinda) agricultural cooperative society.
Farmer from Doda village in Muktsar Balwinder Singh said, "I wanted to purchase seeds, fertilizers and diesel for wheat sowing but the local society has declined to provide these items or loan in new currency notes."
An official in a cooperative society in Kararwala village of Bathinda says the society has Rs 8 lakh in cash but the banks were not accepting the deposits. "Kot Shamir and Jethuke societies in Bathinda too have money in their coffers but no way to deposit it with the cooperative bank," said a cooperative department official.
Punjab' former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal said, "In place of such directives, the central government needs to take care of the aggrieved farmers of Punjab who have suffered a lot due to cotton failure last year."
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