The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Farm package: Antony clarifies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Farm package: Antony clarifies

Special Correspondent

Says his reference to Kerala’s performance misunderstood

Says the State failed to utilise the Central package
“The scheme has been accepted by 18 States”

Thiruvananthapuram: Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Wednesday clarified that the State failed to utilise the Central package for agriculture for the cooperative sector under the Vaidyanathan Committee report.

In a statement released here, Mr. Antony said his reference to Kerala’s performance in the agriculture sector at a function in Idukki had led to some misunderstanding.

While referring to the agriculture sector, his intention was to point out to Kerala’s failure to accept the agriculture package worth Rs.13,596 crore earmarked for the States.

The scheme had been accepted by 18 States and some of them had already availed themselves of the first instalment. He had referred to this cooperative sector package while stating that West Bengal and Tripura, both ruled by Left parties, were prepared to accept the package, Mr. Antony said.

A task force had been set up to recommend a revival package for cooperative credit societies with the help of financial restructuring preceded by legal and institutional reforms to make them autonomous and sustainable in the long run.

The task force was asked to recommend an action plan for reviving the rural cooperative credit institutions and suggest an appropriate regulatory framework and the necessary amendments to the relevant laws.

A short-term cooperative credit structure had been formulated in consultation with the States, with a total outlay of Rs.13,596 crore to be shared by the Central and State governments and the cooperative credit institutions in the ratio of 68:28:4.

The State governments were required to sign an MoU with the Centre and NABARD. The reforms meant permitting the RBI to exercise control on the cooperatives with the State governments continuing to exercise administrative control.

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