Kottayam: The Idukki District Cooperative Bank says despite offering Rs 200 crore to retail borrowers in the district to tide over the post-deluge economic crisis, there are only a few takers.
Instead, they depend on private moneylenders.
The DCB could so far disburse only Rs 20 crore. The bank had allocated Rs 100 crore for farming and an equal amount for allied sectors.
P.R. Rajesh, the general manager of the Idukki DCB, said that only around 800 persons had availed loans from therm.
He said that there is a lack of confidence in the traditional banking system among the customers.
“In our interactions, most of them are expressing the absence of confidence in the banking
sector. They have to repay loans they have already taken, and they thought that the bank would force them to clear them first,” he told DC.
The Idukki DCB has an approximately 3 lakh customer base in the district.
The Idukki district administration has estimated 1,535 houses washed away, 3061 damaged and 11,530.64 hectares of crops lost in the floods and landslides since May 29.
