Chandigarh, September 15
Unhappy over the allocation of funds by the Vaidyanathan committee for the revitalisation of short-term cooperative credit structure in the state, the Punjab government has refused to approve the committee’s report.

The Vaidyanathan committee was set up by the union government to decide the allocation of funds for short as well as long-term revitalisation of credit structure. For short credit structuring, the committee had sent its report for comments to the state government. However, disagreeing with the report, the state government has refused to send its comments.

Cooperation minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, said the allocation to Punjab was highly discriminatory. “While Punjab was allocated just Rs 80 crore, Maharashtra was given Rs 6,400 crore,” he said.

“Moreover, non-performing states in cooperative sector have been given substantial allocation of funds, states with best record in cooperative loans recovery and otherwise have been virtually penalised by making unbalanced allocation,” said the cooperation minister.

“Our share should have been Rs 540 crore. Moreover, the parameters and conditions laid down by the committee had already been implemented well before its report in the Punjab cooperative banks. However, for implementing those parameters and conditions, the committee was not ready to make any allocation to the state,” said Capt Kanwaljit Singh.