Kerala Bank to be ready by August 16 next year

Thiruvananthapuram: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s much-awaited project, Kerala Bank, is expected to become a reality by 16 August next year.

All formalities in this regard will be completed by 16 August, a government release said. This was stated during the evaluation meeting of various projects chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on the second day Tuesday.

An ambitious project of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led government, the proposal was to form a Kerala Bank by merging district co-operative banks with state co-operative banks, converting the present three-tier cooperative into two-tier system.

The government has already approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for necessary permission to start the Kerala Bank, the release said. The re-deployment of employees, its business policy for the next five years has already been submitted to the RBI, the release said.

The objective is to strengthen the cooperative sector, especially in the wake of state public sector bank State Bank of Travancore merging with the State Bank of India, according to the release. Modernisation of the co-operative sector was going on smoothly and steps for modernisation of primary co-operative banks has also begun, it added.