West Bengal is a leader when it came to cooperative movement in the country, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said Monday.
He said in West Bengal, Nadia district excelled and has won recognition from the Union government.
Mitra highlighted the stellar growth achieved under the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in terms of disbursals to coperatives and self help groups (SHGs) at the inauguration of the centenary year of the state cooperative banks' celebration and 'Samabay mela'.
Mitra however, evaded a question on high bad loans of the West Bengal State Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Bank whose gross and net non performing assets (NPA) stood at 23.27 per cent and 17.12 per cent, respectively, as on March 2018.
Mitra said credit deposit ratio of the cooperative bank was 81.16 per cent which was "exceedingly good".
Cooperative banks, which play a crucial role in agriculture and rural development, extended crop loan of Rs 1,388 crore during 2010-11 but the same has jumped to Rs 3,300 crore now, Mitra said.
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Similarly, loan to SHGs was at Rs 129 crore when the TMC government took over and it has been now increased to Rs 612 crore, he said.
Paddy procurement has also jumped to 5.08 lakh MT now from 1.97 lakh MT in 2010-11.
Department of Cooperation Minister Arup Roy said the government has taken initiatives to expand the cooperative banks in 710 gram panchyats of of which 50 was inaugurated on Monday.