By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 18 Feb: Cooperative Banks in Uttarakhand will be launching a One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme in the state from 20 February till 25 March 2023. Now even the account holders can take advantage of this scheme. Dr BVRC Purushottam, Secretary and Registrar of Cooperative Department, has issued orders regarding the implement of the scheme. He informed that this scheme has been brought in with respect to the accounts which had become Non Performing Assets (NPAs) in District Co-operative Banks and State Co-operative Bank. He asserted that this is a golden opportunity for the account holders of NPA accounts to settle the accounts under the One Time Settlement Scheme. The scheme has been implemented under the directions of Cooperative Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat, Purshottam informed. He added that last year, on the instructions of the minister, the banks had achieved a lot of success in implementing the OTS scheme and were able to bring down their NPAs. This year too, the department has come out with the OTS scheme on the direction of the Cooperative Minister.

Purushottam said that under this scheme, account holders who have taken loans up to Rs 1 crore from cooperative banks will be granted some relief in terms of refund. Under the One Time Settlement Scheme, interest on the loans taken by the borrowers will be waived off completely under lump sum deposit money scheme, or in case of the borrowers who have died but have deposited instalments equal to the principal amount. Under the second category, a general borrower account holder will be required to pay the outstanding (balance) principal amount after deducting the principal amount from all the instalments he has deposited so far. While under the third category, account holders classified as doubtful loan accounts will be given 30 percent rebate on the interest paid on the outstanding principal amount.
He said that from the date of acceptance of the applications received under this scheme, it will be necessary for the applicants to deposit the entire amount along with interest in lump sum or in three equal instalments. Under this scheme, such cases in which proceedings for debt recovery are going on under the Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Act 2003 and in the other courts / are going on in appeal, with the permission of the competent authority / authority issuing such orders, with the consent of the borrower and the institution concerned. can be included in the plan. Banks will place the progress report of implementation under this scheme in front of their management committee.
Dr Purushottam instructed the Secretaries and General Managers of District Co-operative Banks to give wide publicity to this scheme, so that loan seekers seeking relief can get information about this scheme and all such loan account holders will be informed by the concerned branches through letters so that they can take advantage of the scheme.