Change of guard seems to have failed to change the working of the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank. Despite vigilance enquiry, the KCC Bank went on recruiting staffs which the Himachal Pradesh High Court has canceled now.
Citing Bank’s high NPA, Himachal Pradesh High Court canceled the recruitment process of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank which advertised to fill 216 posts across different categories. According to the RBI norms, if any bank’s NPA is more than 12 percent the bank is neither eligible to open branches nor to carry out recruitment. Presently, the KCC bank has NPA counting 15.29 percent.
Besides, RCS has already issued the order that any recruitment in the KCC Bank will be done through IBPS, Subordinate Selection Board or State Public Service Commission but the bank ignored the order.
Readers would note that In June 2017 the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank had started the process of recruitment for filling 216 posts of different categories in the bank. The petition was filed by Keshav Karola in the High Court claiming that the examination for recruitment in the bank was against the RBI rules.
The issue of irregularities in the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank resonated strongly during the 73rd Annual General Meeting held a couple of months ago in the auditorium of Dharamshala College. The newly appointed Chairman Rajeev Bhardwaj had assured that in future there will be no cases of any irregularity as the new team has vowed to be transparent in its working.
Earlier, the Vigilance Bureau had confiscated the records of bad loans from the Kangra Central Cooperative Bank. The inquiry into the bad loans given by the bank during the stint of previous Congress government has been initiated on the basis of a charge-sheet prepared by the BJP before the elections.
BJP had alleged that the bank management, headed by the previous chairman Jagdish Sapiya, had extended loans in violation of norms that had turned into non-performing assets (NPAs).
It is alleged that bad loans were extended to UR Sinter, Yudh Chand Bains and Crest Steel in Una district and RL Belvedere in Palampur.