Mumbai: Credit societies' regulatory board will safeguard investors' interest, Minister

Minister of state for cooperation Dada Bhuse on Wednesday announced that the government would set up cooperative credit societies regulatory board to safeguard investors' interest by making necessary provisions in the cooperative Act.

He was responding to a call attention motion moved by MLAs Kisan Kathore, Shashikant Shinde, Bhaskar Jadhav, Jitendra Avhad and others in the state assembly. The MLAs pointed out that there were 470 cooperative credit societies in the state that were facing financial irregularities, thereby putting investors in trouble. They alleged that despite repeated complains by investors to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, no action has been taken. The MLAs demanded immediate intervention by government.

MLA Shambhuraje Desai said there have been many cases of bogus loans, which have been disbursed to close relatives of the directors of the credit societies.

Bhuse informed that cases have been filed against 2,908 directors and office-bearers of 182 credit societies over irregularities and 1,262 have been arrested. He also said that the cooperatives department officials have been asked to complete various inquiries under different sections of the Cooperatives Act and expedite the cases.

Former minister for cooperation Jaiprakash Mundada raised the issue of mushrooming of multi-state cooperative credit societies, alleging that there is no control over them. MLA Subhash Deshmukh said there was no insurance protection to the deposits in the credit societies. Bhuse then said the proposed regulatory board would also consider providing insurance cover for the deposits.