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Exactly ten years after the Hindu Credit Union (HCU) headed by Harry Harnarine collapsed, a group of modest investors have united to send a message to the Indian/Hindu community that it is safe to invest their money and not fear that it will be lost.
At its inaugural meeting in April, the Hindu Parivaar Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited President, Ramcharan Motilal, said “Some Hindus had fear in their hearts but the majority want to see us organise ourselves to give back credibility to the word Hindu in organised finance.”
Distancing his organisation from the Harnarine-led HCU, Motilal said “This has nothing to do with them. Following the closure of that credit union, there has always been a need and wonder as to when Hindus would reorganise themselves as others have.
“We have started back from scratch.”
Revealing they had begun putting things in place since December 2016, Motilal said the Barrackpore group consulted with the Credit Union Co-operative Division, Ministry of Labour and had accessed training throughout 2017.
He said although the Commissioner of Co-operatives had only approved their by-laws and business plan earlier this year, they still needed additional training before they could face the public.
Motilal said “We are not yet open for business.”
The current membership stands between 30 and 40 individuals whom he said “had come together to really get it going.”
Motilal said two weeks ago an application had been submitted to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for approval, which would enable them to establish an official business account from which all transactions would be executed.
Without this, he said, they would not be able to move forward.
Motilal added, “All necessary forms went up to them and we should get that approval within a week or two. We can’t say we are ready for business and not have an account.”
Asked where the start-up capital would be coming from, Motilal said “The first year of operations will be done on a voluntary basis because you can’t run an office or pay staff unless we have funding available to do so.”
Motilal said the credit union would not be offering loans in the “early stage.”
“These are people whose hearts are into making something and we are starting at ground zero, so the share balance would have to accumulate first.”
He said following this, loans would only be granted based on an individual’s share balance.
“We can’t compete with anybody else but people, out of love, want to create something and are willing to make that sacrifice for a year or two until it can stand on its own,” Motilal added.
See Page A10