Mahesh Chandra Joshi from Pithoragarh and Vasudha Pant from Almora have been elected unopposed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairperson of the leading bank of Uttarakhand-Almora Urban Cooperative Bank respectively, in an election held on Tuesday.
Once again, the bank maintained the tradition of electing its new board unopposed. It is being said that since the establishment of the bank there has been no election held. Joshi and Pant replaced Anand Singh Bagadwal and Sunil Agarwal respectively.
It is being reported that the outgoing Chairman Anand Singh Bagadwal had been the chairman of the bank for over 20 years but in this election he had failed to file the nomination papers because his seat was reserved for the candidate of SC/ST or Women Category. He comes from the General Category.
Talking to Indian Cooperative the newly elected Chairman Joshi said, “I am very thankful to our board members who repose faith in me and give me such a big responsibility. I will meet their expectations. I have just taken the charge and it is too early to answer your queries. I assure you I will come back to you soon”.
“I have been on the board for five years and will work in the interest of our customers, shareholders, well-wishers and others. I am a Chartered Accountant and will work to take the bank to newer heights”, said Joshi on the phone.
The bank’s board consists of 12 directors in which 7 seats are reserved for the General category, 2 for Women, 1 SC/ST and 2 for professional directors. In the new board many directors are newcomers.
Sunil Adhikari haD been appointed as the Returning officer from Almora to oversee the election process. About hundred members of the bank had sent their consent for becoming the voters. There were 23 delegates from Almora, 12 from Dehradun, 4 from Haridwar and the remaining ones from other places.
The bank has earned a net profit of Rs 43.18 cr in the 2019-20 FY and has a network of 50 branches across the state. It offers high quality facilities to its customers from 26 ATMs. It is the first UCB in Uttarakhand which is a direct member of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).