BANGALORE: The Government has decided to recover Rs. 50 crore owed to the District Central Cooperative Bank, Dharwad, by textile mills and cooperative societies. The money will be recovered by auctioning their properties.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting with officials of the bank here on Friday, Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar, who is in charge of Dharwad district, said some textile mills and cooperative societies in Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri districts had not repaid loans taken from the bank.

Some of the cooperatives concerned were headed by politicians, he said, but refused to name them. The defaulters were Venkateshwara Cooperative Textile Mill, Annigeri (Rs. 5 crore); Tungabhadra Farmers' Cooperative Spinning Mill, Ranebennur (Rs. 3.72 crore); Someshwara Cooperative Spinning Mills, Laxmeshwar (Rs. 3.56 crore); Malaprabha Cooperative Spinning Mill, Navalgund (Rs. 7.93 crore); and Gadag Cooperative Oil Mill (Rs. 88 lakh).

The Dharwad District Central Cooperative Bank was incurring losses for the past few years and they had accumulated to Rs. 85 crore, Mr. Shettar said.

Some of the factors responsible for the losses were mismanagement, waiver of interest on loans, disbursement of farm loans at six per cent interest last year (Rs. 80 crore) and four per cent this year (Rs. 60 crore) and non-reimbursement of interest subsidy by the Government. The financial position of urban cooperative banks in the district had also been affected, the Minister said.

The meeting decided to urge the Government release Rs. 23 crore to the bank to compensate for the interest subsidy on farm loans.

Drought

The Minister said the Government would soon declare 15 more taluks drought hit, taking the number of affected taluks to 117.

According to reports compiled by Revenue Department officials, the 15 taluks had been hit by an erratic monsoon, forcing the Government to launch relief works, he said.

Central aid

The Centre had released Rs. 250 crore to the State to implement relief operations in flood- and drought-affected areas, Mr. Shettar said.

After an aerial survey of some of the districts affected by floods on August 30, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil promised to release Rs. 250 crore for flood relief in Bidar, Raichur, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belgaum and Gulbarga districts.

But the Centre was yet to release foodgrains. The State had asked the Centre for three lakh tonnes of foodgrains, Mr. Shettar said.

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