The entire Board of Saraswat Bank has been re-elected unopposed mainly because of its spectacular performance in the last fiscal. The country’s largest urban cooperative bank has done business mix worth Rs 50 thousand crore by 31st March, 2016.
This Board has achieved what it promised. After this accomplishment the UCB looks forward to the next tranche of Rs 1,00,000 crore of business mix by 31st March 2021. Share-holders are so much hooked on the bank’s performance that they have reposed their complete faith in the present board by re-electing it, said an insider.
The AGM is slated for 6th of August in which results would be declared , informed the Chairman of Saraswat , Sakhalkar. Soon after the AGM elections for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, S K Sakhalkar and Gautam Thakur will again become Chairman and vice-chairman respectively.
There were many nominations but all of them were withdrawn by 22nd July-the last day of withdrawal. However, there is no information on whether some people worked hard behind the scenes to get the board re-elected unopposed What is known is that since the outgoing board had given members no reasons for making complaints; the incumbent board had an overwhelming support from the members.
H P Gemini, the Returning Officer, meanwhile has advertized in the newspapers saying “polling on 1st August,2016 is not required as after withdrawals on 22nd July 2016 the number of candidates in constituency nos I, 2 and 3 does not exceed the number of candidates to be elected from each constituency. .”
A cooperative organization getting the better of all other banks in turnover, Saraswat Bank boasts a voter list consisting of 1 lakh, 82 thousand cooperators. It has 15 Directors from among them and all of them have been elected unopposed. It is no mean feat! Indian Cooperative noted this reaction from several cooperators.
Referring to the achievement, officials of the UCB say the Bank has kept pace with digital revolution through a range of user-friendly technological products like mobile banking, internet banking, international VISA EMV and RuPay chip cards, etc.
Saraswat Bank is the first co-operative bank in the country to have received an all India permission from the Reserve Bank of India for opening branches and has operations in six states viz. Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
The UCB had 267 fully computerized branches as of 31st March 2015, 4 Zonal Offices and departments located across 6 States. The bank has introduced a wide range of credit schemes at attractive interest rates, which has become very popular, especially with the middle-class in view of easy repayment plans.
The Board consists of
S.K. Sakhalkar
G.E. Thakur
Padmashri Madhu Mangesh Karnik
S.N. Sawaikar
P.N. Joshi
K.V. Rangnekar
A.A. Pandit
H.M. Rathi
S.V. Saudagar
Mrs A. P. Samant
S.S. Shirodkar
N.G. Pai
A.G. Ambeskar
S.M. Lotlikar
S.S. Bhandare
K.D. Umrootkar
S.K.Banerji is Managing Director