Pawar seeks Rs500-cr aid from FM to save 6 co-op banks

Pawar seeks Rs500-cr aid from FM to save 6 co-op banks

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday urged the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to sanction a Rs 500 crore package to save six district cooperative banks reeling under crisis. If these banks are not provided the necessary funds in time, their licenses stand to be cancelled. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has already indicated that state government should provide the necessary help to save the banks. At the end of a two-hour long meeting, it was decided that Pawar and Chavan shall together meet union finance minister P Chidambaram to discuss the matter. The six district banks are Nagpur, Buldhana, Jalgaon, Nadurbar-Dhule, Osmanabad and Wardha. Earlier, Pawar’s proposal to the state to provide the bail-out package of Rs500 crore was turned down by Chavan. The chief minister’s argument was that a majority of these banks are mired in problems due to mismanagement. Pawar cited the example of former chief minister Ashok Chavan who earlier provided a Rs100 crore package to save the Nanded district cooperative bank. Even the apex bank Maharashtra Cooperative was accorded a Rs400 crore package recently. k_shubhangi@dnaindia.net