Approved Dealers for Bank Finance

V V BHATT's proposal (November 21, 1970, pp 1896-1900) for a scheme of Approved Dealers for credit extension to farmers and small industrialists by the nationalised banks, would in effect lead to the emergence of a new claw of middlemen between the nationalised bank and the grower/small industrialist Indeed, if the performance of some nationalised banks in extending farm credit in the post-nationalisation period is any guide, the scheme of Approved Dealers will make credit costlier to the fanner and would raise the bad farm debt ratio for the banks. The following incident, which occurred recently in one of the branches of a nationalised bank, brings home the operational deficiencies in Bhatt's proposal.