Cooperative banks to be merged to form Kerala Bank: Chief Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: The district cooperative banks in the State will be merged with State Cooperative Bank to form a single bank with highest number of branches in the State, Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan informed the House on Thursday.

Replying to a question from V. D. Satheesan (Congress) during question hour, the Chief Minister explained that the new Kerala bank would have a crucial role to play in the developmental activities of the State. The merging of SBT and SBI would necessitate the need for a strong banking system of the State; this gap would be filled by the new bank.

Government aims to expand the cooperative banking sector, Mr. Vijayan said, adding that the allegations and anxiety that this would destroy the cooperative sector is baseless. The cooperative societies have deposits totaling Rs. 60105 crores.

A. C. Moideen, Minister for Cooperation and Tourism, told the House that the tourism sector had recorded a decline in the rate of growth in the last two years though there was no decline in the number of tourists.

The Minister informed the House, in response to a query by Mullakkara Rathnakaran (CPI), that the growth in domestic tourism went down from 7.71% in 2014 to 6.53% in 2015, Growth rates in foreign tourism sector decreased from 7.4% in 2014 to 6.59% in 2015. The Minister said that the Government aims for a 100% growth in foreign tourism sector and 50% in domestic tourism sector in the next five years.

E. P. Jayarajan, Industries Minister, stated in the House that all Public sector units in the State would be made profitable in the next five years.  Corruption, nepotism and inefficiency will not be tolerated and corrupt inefficient officials will be replaced in accordance with the report of the committee set up for the purpose, the Minister said.

Possibilities of modernising PSUs through e- governance and e- procurement initiatives, and improving their efficiencies will be studied, Minister said. The Government would initiate a new scheme (ASHA) Assistant scheme for Handicraft Artisans to support employees in this sector. New awards would also be started to promote the handicraft sector.

The Minister was responding to the query raised by V. K. C. Mammed Koya(CPI-M) and Eldho Abraham(CPI).