UP govt to recapitalise 16 district coop banks, inject Rs 80 mn in each

The Uttar Pradesh government is working on a blueprint to infuse fresh capital in 16 ailing District Cooperative Banks (DCB).

The government will inject almost Rs 80 million in each of the 16 DCBs operating in Faizabad, Shravasti, Allahabad, Sitapur, Hardoi, Azamgarh, Fatehpur, Gorakhpur, Basti, Ballia, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Bahraich districts. These DCBs have multiple branches operating in their respective regions.

UP cooperative minister Mukut Bihari Verma told Business Standard that each DCB would be infused with fresh capital of Rs 40-80 million, depending on the need, to help them restart normal banking operations.

He said there was a budget of about Rs 12 billion to usher in a turnaround in these cooperative institutions, which are currently bogged down by liquidity crunch, non-performing assets (NPA), lack of resources etc. In all, there are 50 DCBs functioning in the state, of which only about a dozen have sound financial position, while the rest are either loss making or lying defunct.