Imagine losing your life savings as your bank goes bankrupt or diverts your funds as loan to its office bearers.
Maharashtra’s co-operation commissioner Krishna Lavhekar has initiated criminal action against 338 credit co-operative societies and arrested around 500 directors for financial irregularities. But this could be just the tip of the iceberg.
As many as 3.14 lakh investors, largely from semi-urban areas — small businessmen, working class, middle-class professionals - may be affected if the government cannot clean up the mess.
There are 25,000-odd co-operative credit societies with 1.10 crore members, which form the lowest rung of the banking system and provide micro-financing for a large section of the population. Most societies are headed or allied to politicians.