MUMBAI: In a major relief to district central co-operative banks (DCCBs), the Union finance ministry has allowed the Reserve Bank of India to exchange old currency notes lying with them since demonetization. DCC banks in Maharashtra alone hold nearly Rs 2,270 crore in such old notes.Five days after demonetisation , on November 14 last year, RBI had told DCCBs that they were ineligible to exchange or receive deposits of demonetised currency. The concern was that these banks, being politically connected, might be used for laundering black money. While the DCCBs ceased receiving demonetised notes, they found themselves stuck with demonetised currency which the central bank had refused to exchange. Worst affected were the banks in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the cooperatives play a major role.In its gazette notification dated June 20, the government said that DCCBs can deposit demonetized notes collected between November 10 and 14, 2016 with any RBI branch within 30 days and receive credit for the same.In Maharashtra, many of the state cooperatives are controlled by the NCP and the Shiv Sena has a sizeable presence in their workers’ unions. There are in all 31 DCCBs, of which Pune DCCB has the largest deposit of demonetised notes (Rs 811 crore), followed by Satara DCCB (Rs 399 crore) and Nashik DCCB with Rs 365 crore.With their money in limbo, the state DCCBs were finding it difficult to raise money to extend crop loans for the upcoming agricultural season. They were also struggling to meet the government’s directive to provide an advance of Rs 10,000 to every farmer until the larger issue of loan waiver was formalized.Chief executive officer of Kolhapur DCCB, MLA Hasan Mushrif, said, “It is a moral victory for the bank, which has been sitting on Rs 279.78 crore in the form of old denomination notes and incurring losses of Rs 15 lakh as interest on this deposit. The government has not mentioned anything regarding compensation for the interest we have lost. Besides, the note ban tainted our image among the rural masses and has affected our deposit collection.”Farmers unhappy with revised norms for loan advanceChief minister Devendra Fadnavis said at the state-level bankers’ committee on Wednesday that the Rs 10,000 loan advance promised by the government to farmers would be disbursed in 48 hours. He also promised financially weak DCCBs assistance from the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank, the apex district cooperative bank.However, farmers’ representatives are not happy with the government’s revised norms for the loan advance. “The government is creating confusion over the issue. It issued two government resolutions (GR) in a span of an hour on Tuesday night. The first one mentions farmers earning Rs 5 lakh annual income and the second reduced it to Rs 4 lakh. We don’t agree with the government on many issues and more clarity is required,” said Ajit Nawale, a Kisan Sabha member who is part of the farmers’ steering committee.