today specify an 8-year tenure for directors excluding the chairman and the whole-time director in banking company the proposed amendment aims to extend the tenure of directors excluding the chairman and the fulltime director in Cooperative Banks to 10 years
so the current Provisions today specify an 8-year tenure for directors excluding the chairman and the whole-time director in banking company the proposed amendment aims to extend the tenure of directors excluding the chairman and the fulltime director in Cooperative Banks to 10 years I repeat this line write off is not wave off Mam and many other members also spoke about amalgamation of banks uh many banks have lost their employees I would like to tell this house from the time amalgamation happened till today on account of the amalgamation not one employee has been removed from the banks not one sir uh I did already speak about the mudra loan about the Rural Bank presence so many of the questions which on this aspect that um honorable member g go had raised I’ve sort of addressed but one particular thing on which many members spoke was on student loans Education Loans I just want to dispel the uh doubt that many members had in their mind sir total education loan outstanding has increased from 71,000 CR in 201718 to 1 lakh uh 1.04 lakh crores in 2324 which is an increase of 17 .6% over October 23 so model loan education scheme has also been launched by government of India where loans up to 7.5 lakh is given without requirement of any collateral or any margin money the repayment period is also 15 long years further the scheme sir is also backed by credit guarantee uh to the extent of 3,500 crores so government is giving credit guarantee and we’ve given amount allocated to for the guarantee purpose is 3,500 now recently government has also brought out pradhanmantri Vidya lakmi scheme for financial support to meritorious students I just want to highlight what this meritorious students loan scheme is Sir on 6th November 2024 pradan mry Vidya lakmi scheme was approved in the cabinet and uh the broad cont of this loan scheme because on students loan many people were rightly concerned I just want to put before put before them what this loan scheme is up to 7.5 lakh loans will be provided uh under 75% credit guarantee by the by government of India and that is the national credit guarantee corporation which will support it for uh quality high quality higher qu education quality higher education uh beyond the 11 7.5 lakh also we are willing to give for students now these loans are given not to very uh upper middle class or middle class or even higher income class but these are students with up to 8 lakh annual family income the scheme will also provide 3% interest subvention for loans up to 10 lakhs so interest subvention B collateral free B and for families with uh very low income uh and this is in addition to a scheme which is already existing uh to the full interest that there is a full uh interest subvention given to students for up to 4.5 lakh annual family income so not 8 lakh but even lesser gets full interest subvention so the scheme is applicable and it is provided by all scheduled commercial Banks Regional rural Banks and Cooperative Banks also 3% interest subvention uh will be paid to to 1 lakh eligible students and will be enabled through the Central Bank digital currency process through kandra bank and this faciliity is expected to be ready by the first week of February uh by the second week of February that’s a Target date sir so PM Vidya lakmi scheme uh is something on which uh the poorer students lowincome class students will get interest subvention and also collateral fee so uh sir Kalan Baner G raised a few issues which I just want to clarify sir uh he was uh speaking elaborately on the nomination issue I want to clarify on that sir sir the at the moment all the provisions allow only for the nomination of one person for the payment of depositors money articles kept in safe custody and also for safety lock lockers and so on the proposed amendment sir will enable individuals to nominate up to four persons for these facilities with options for either successive or simultaneous um nominations I just want to draw the difference between where it is successive and where it will be simultaneous that will be the first explanation I want to give honorable member Kalan banerji sir depositors will have the option for successive or simultaneous uh and not and if I heard honorable member right successive and no it is going to be this or that um for instance for deposits option for either successive or simultaneous nominations are available whereas for articles kept in safe custody or in safety Lo workers only successive nominations will be allowed successive nominations ensure that if the first nominee is unavailable the next nominee in line will become operative maintaining continuity and reducing complications of legal hirs additionally what it does 45 zg is inserted to establish the priority of successive nominations ensuring clear guidelines for Activation of subsequent nominees if one is not there and another why at all we need to bring this this also partly answers uh s enk Prem chandra’s concerns about why we are doing all this sir uh before I come to the next point on the directors so the difference between where the successive and where the multiple nominations are applicable are there differential differentiated treatment between deposits and also the security sir Kalan Baner G and also um I think many others enk premachandran also and Supra sule also raised this issue of Cooperative Bank directors so the current Provisions today specify an 8-year tenure for directors excluding the chairman and the fulltime director in banking company the the proposed amendment aims to extend the tenure of directors excluding the chairman and the whole time director in Cooperative Banks to 10 years what’s the rational sir the 97th amendment to the Constitution specifies that the term of elected members of the board and its office bearers in Cooperative societies shall be 5 Years From the date of election this provision is consistent with most Cooperative laws which also stipulate 5year term of office for directors with no restriction on reelection the current uh banking regulation act imposes an 8year cap on tenure of directors so that and the Constitutional provision are not in alignment so this creates practical difficulties as directors serving the maximum term and Cooperative laws are required to resign in the middle of their second term to comply with the bank Bing regulation act to resolve this Challenge and align it with the banking regulation act with the Constitutional element it is pro it is proposed therefore to extend the maximum continuous tenure for directors from 8 years to 10 years this will therefore harmonize it with the current governing practices that exist so I so these are the points which I think the three members [Music] at the moment we have not but you have given us a thought I’ll have to think about it I’m not giving an assurance but I’ll certainly have to Sir um there was also this concern about cyber frauds there’s a lot of activity and initiative being taken by government of India I’ll just highlight and I know even on a daily basis there are a lot of uh uh calls which come to us saying I’ve lost lost this money because of people fraudulently called me saying they are CBI director they are so and so I Chief or whatever and uh claimed their entire details and money has been siphoned off in many cases very educated very very experienced government and private uh company uh top executiv are Lo losing money but uh at this stage I can only say the efforts that we are taking and we are trying to as much as possible [Music] sir so at the moment sir Indian cyber crime coordination Center which we call as i4c under the ministry of home Affairs uh serves as a national nodal point for coordinated effort in tackling cyber crimes cyber fraud mitigation Center operates in collaboration with major Banks payment intermediaries Telecom service providers law enforcement agencies and so on National CRI cyber crime helpline 1 1930 is also operational 24 by7 across all states and UTS so for immediate reporting and redressing so I’ve broadly given an indication of kind the kind of uh steps that government of India is taking on this but I understand there is a rampant uh occurrence and on which we need to have very quick redressal uh mechanisms the department and uh uh the IC are all working together to come up with some concrete plans sir um a member Dr Rani shrikumar had raised this issue sir which is very important so I thought I should specifically say um that banks are being uh minimum Bank savings deposit that people hold are also being charged with penalties and so on I want to assure uh member Rani shrikumar that uh none of the basic account holders 65 CR basic saving bank deposit holders or the 54 CR janun account holders who are absolutely bottom of the rung none of them are penalized for not maintaining minimum balance it’s a written order no Bank can charge on them and in fact these accounts are also given overdraft facility of 10,000 which is extended to all these basic account and jundan account and besides that jundan account holders are also given 2 lakh rupees as accident insurance and also a rou a card with no additional charge for them to use the card so I just want to assure that the member we don’t charge anything for services for these accounts so finally enk prachand G uh write off loans so this is a repeated uh point of concern which many honorable members speak about write off wave off when when when writeoffs happen Banks make a certain provision and for uh loans which are defaulted and of after a certain level they are then given to NCL National Asset reconstruction company which then finds buyers prodes up that and buyers after they come and take it the due amount to the bank comes back so this was very nicely legislatively created and that is why NCL is actively working to take away away these accounts we after certain amount um which they can uh take over and for lesser amount defaults the usual uh local redressal mechanisms drts surfaces all of them come into play no right off is left without pursuing from the defaulter the total amount that he owes the system and therefore there were quite a few members of parliament we who spoke from this side saying how much has been obtained from defaulters how much has been given back retributions Bank restitution to the banks have happened restitution alone is above 15,000 crores so there are this is a ongoing process it’s not going to be just one day but I repeat this line right off is not wave off banks are pursuing them so with that sir I think I mostly addressed many of the members concern um I uh um request through you so there was one important Point sir the Lord I think again it was uh Dr shivkumar uh Rani shivkumar Rani shrikumar sorry sorry uh she spoke about also members uh Mam and many other members also spoke about amalgamation of banks uh many banks have lost their employees I would like to tell this house from the time amalgamation happened to till today on account of the amalgamation not one employee has been removed from the banks not one and therefore I want to be very clear no one then statistics no you may give me I sta fine statistics fine but they have not been removed is the point that I want to say I look into what you’ve given sir this EPS 95 very uh sensitive topic honorable member Supra Su raised it this scheme is administered by the ministry of labor and employment and minister of or Ministry finance ministry has no record of any approval or Assurance which s Arun jley has given on this matter we don’t have any record so I just want to very clearly put it that the finance ministry through the Minister that’s that’s fine I I take that point but then no Assurance was given by honorable Finance Minister that time sir um sir um one other PL one liner might help a bit more to explain the point that uh honorable member Supra sule raised there are no reelection restriction on the directors if that helps in you know explaining the situation the prospective aspect is different but I just want you I’m sure you’re aware of it right okay that’s fine that’s fine I heard you okay so that’s largely the response I wanted to give me thank you for giving me this opportunity