THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sought fruitful interventions by the agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), to protect the interests of the cooperative sector in the state, "which is being unjustifiably strangled by post-demonetisation policies".

 

As agencies which stay close to decision makers who have erred by taking harsh steps against the cooperative sector, the RBI and the Nabard should advise them (the policy makers) to rectify their mistakes, he said while releasing Nabard's 'State Focus Paper' on state's exploitable credit potential here on Wednesday.

 

"We are okay with your credit plan, which is exemplary, but the attitude towards primary cooperative societies and banks should be changed so that they can retain the 'mass face' through people's programmes," he added.

Pinarayi, however, appreciated the stand taken by Nabard in support of the cooperative sector, and said the state was grateful for "not abandoning its worthy child heeding to wrong advices". "The latest information provided by RBI through an RTI application says that cooperative banks have no hoard of black money, which disproves the ongoing false propaganda," he added.