The first all woman cooperative bank in Assam as well as the whole of North East is facing hurdles in its aim of expanding its reach to other districts of the state. The bank currently houses in Jorhat.

It has been more than a year that Konoklota Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank Limited is trying to get permission to open branches and spread its network and activities to the nearing districts of the state.

As per the managing director of the bank, Lakhimi Baruah, the bank fulfills all critieria set by RBI for it to expand itself but still is not given permission for the same by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Guwahati.

"The bank first submitted a proposal to open branches at Golaghat and Sivasagar to the deputy registrar, Cooperative Societies, Jorhat, on June 6, 2009. This proposal was forwarded by the deputy registrar to Guwahati in December 2009. On May 25, 2010, the same proposal was sent again to the deputy registrar and this has been forwarded to Guwahati on August 2, 2010," Baruah said. "But till date we have no information about whether the proposal has been admitted."

"The delay by the government is proving to be a deterrent to push forward our agenda of economic emancipation of underprivileged women," Baruah said.

Baruah is the founder of the bank and says that the bank was established in order to fulfill credit requirements of women and also as a means of employment generation for the womenfolk.

"The idea of saving develops faster and is more sustainable among poor women than their men folk, as the former is always in the search for security," she said.

"The initial scheme we had submitted to the RBI was for the socio-economic emancipation of underprivileged women wherein it was proposed that we undertake family and youth counselling, train women of self-help groups and set up crèches besides provide micro-credit. We still have a lot to do," Baruah said.