A State government-appointed committee has recommended merging the Kerala State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (KSCARDB) with the Kerala Bank.
While KSCARDB which now acts as the apex bank will be merged, the 76 primary cooperative agricultural and rural development banks under KSCARDB should be retained as such, but under the control of the Kerala Bank, the committee headed by R. Sasikumar has suggested in the report handed over to Minister for Cooperation V. N. Vasavan on Wednesday.
In order to enable the merger, the committee has advised that the necessary amendments should be made in the Kerala State Co-operative (Agricultural and Rural Development) Banks Act and the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act. The merger will serve to strengthen the cooperative sector in the State, according to the committee.
If the amalgamation is approved by the government, the KSCARDB will evolve into the Kerala Bank loan sanctioning wing dealing with farm and rural development, a committee member said.
The Kerala Bank had come into being in 2019 through the merger of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank and 13 district cooperative banks.
The committee had been constituted by the previous LDF government for suggesting measures for the modernisation of KSCARDB. It was later reconstituted with Mr. Sasikumar as chairman by the present LDF dispensation.
According to the report, the banking software system put in place by the Kerala Bank can be adopted by the cooperative agricultural and rural development banks. The committee has also recommended streamlining recovery management in the cooperative agricultural and rural development bank network.
Further, it has suggested that further studies be conducted to finetune the functioning of the 76 primary banks. The report is expected to come up before the Cabinet after a scrutiny by the Cooperation department.
