Basharat orders easy loan scheme for farmers

LAHORE:Provincial Minister for Law and Cooperatives Raja Basharat has directed the department of cooperatives to start easy loan scheme for purchase of tractors, agricultural implements and commodities to the farmers.

He was presiding over a meeting at the Civil Secretariat here Monday where he was briefed by the Secretary Cooperatives and the Registrar of Cooperatives, as well as the heads of the Punjab Liquidation Board and the Cooperatives Bank. Raja Basharat took stern notice of the delay in relinquishing illegal possession of the department's properties and urged the head and registrar of the cooperative bank to take immediate steps to expedite the recovery of arrears of billions of rupees pending since long.

Expressing regret over the lack of an effective system of regular inspection in the department, the provincial minister said that the cases referred to NAB and anti-corruption should be followed up and elections for the remaining 38 societies should be completed soon. He further directed that after reviewing the cases of inactive housing societies, they should be made functional and steps should be taken to increase the leased land and buildings of the department as per the market value.

Raja Basharat said that implementation of the instructions given by the Punjab government regarding FATF should be ensured and no slackness would be tolerated in this regard. He sought details of the properties leased out by the Cooperative Bank, the loans given on gold and the vehicles purchased in last three years and also speedy disposal of the court cases related to the properties.

Basharat said that plans should be started to increase revenue by constructing commercial buildings on vacant lands of the department, vacancies should be filled in a transparent manner immediately and the government affairs should be made as transparent as possible by digitising the records of the department. The provincial minister also directed to publicise the department activities and initiatives for public awareness through social media.

Earlier in the briefing, he was informed that at present the receivables of cooperative societies amounting to Rs11 billion were outstanding. "Out of 232 cooperative housing societies in Punjab, 53 are inactive while 480 out of 1,243 posts of the department are vacant," revealed the briefing. The provincial minister directed to present the progress made on the targets set in the next meeting positively.