As part of efforts for obtaining a banking licence of the Cooperative Bank of India (COBI), its Chairman G H Amin called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, who assured him of help.
“The Prime Minister heard me out patiently and promised to help in getting a banking licence for COBI,” Amin said following the meeting held in the parliament house over demand for licence for the apex body of cooperative banks.
COBI has everything except a banking licence. It holds regular board meetings and has annual general meetings (AGMs). It also holds an annual international banking conference.
B D Sharma, former Chief Executive of NCUI and Managing Director of COBI, accompanied him during the meeting.
Amin, also the Vice President of National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), was abroad last month and returned for the meeting with the Prime Minister.
There is no national level apex body for co-op banks and COBI fills up this gap very well. The Prime Minister appreciated the need to have a body like COBI, a media report quoted Amin as saying.
There are primary co-op banks, district co-op banks and even state co-op banks but there is none at the national level, Amin told the Prime Minister as he called on him along with some top BJP leaders from Gujarat in the wake of developments in the state’s politics.
Earlier, they had met two Union Ministers — Suresh Prabhu and Jayant Sinha.
Suresh Prabhu telephoned finance secretary, asking him to look into our representation, Amin said about his experience. “The meeting with Jayant Sinha was also fruitful as Sinha had insisted on working out the projections of COBI,” Amin added.
