No move to bifurcate CCBs disappoints ruling party men

VELLORE: The anticipation of some ruling party members to become chairpersons of district level cooperative banks was shot down following reports that there is no move to bifurcate the central cooperative banks, which cover more than one district.

While the Vellore Central Cooperative Bank (VCCB) covers Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupattur districts, the Tiruchy District Central Coop Bank caters to the needs of Tiruchy, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Karur districts and the Erode District Central Coop Bank covers Tirupur district also, according to sources.

“Unlike other cooperative institutions, which are controlled by the state government, the central cooperative banks function under the aegis of the RBI and so bifurcation for the time being is not possible due to the heavy work involved in detailing the bank’s assets and liabilities for each new district,” said V Ramu, chairman VCCB.

Elaborating, he said, “though the TN State Apex Cooperative Bank did make an effort to bifurcate the Erode CCB, the attempt did not succeed as there was not much response from the RBI to the idea.”

Division of assets of each CCB during bifurcation,/trifurcation will be a difficult and time consuming process as it entails dividing the details of various loans, especially crop loans availed by beneficiaries in each district, Ramu added.

In the Vellore region, the last such bifurcation was done newly two decades ago when the then North Arcot CCB was bifurcated into the Vellore and Tiruvannamalai district CCBs, after North Arcot district was bifurcated into Vellore and Tiruvannamalai revenue districts in 1989.