BJP MLA Rakesh Pathania called a press conference in Dharamshala seeking action on Kangra Central Cooperative Bank. Despite the BJP coming to power 10 months ago, the Bank still remains under the clutches of Congress, he complained.
Pathania says that the Bank’s NPA has gone upto 18 per cent and even the High Court has pointed ou mismanagement at the bank. But yet the state govt has failed to have either Chairman or MD of its choice, he said in the press meet.
It bears recall that the state govt has levelled charges of unfair means indulged in by the erstwhile Board led by Jagdish Sapehia. It included rising NPAs, violation of norms in giving loans, purchase of vehicles worth Rs 40 lakhs, among others. In the letter written to branch offices by MD it was said that the system-generated report uncovers 3,633 accounts of Rs 169.36 crore that have not been marked as NPAs.
Sapehia denied the charges of undeclared NPAs in the bank’s balance-sheet calling it a game-plan to usurp power. “We were performing well and the bank was on the growth path but some elements have tried to tarnish the image of the bank” said Sapehia to Indian Cooperative correspondent on the phone.
The Kangra Bank has 200 branches across the state, but has been facing rising bad loans. Sapehia, who was appointed as the bank’s chairperson during the Congress rule, said the BJP had been trying to take over the financial institution since it came to power.
Meanwhile, the former minister GS Bali has said the BJP had been alleging that black money was deposited in Kangra cooperative bank and the state cooperative banks during demonetization. “I urge the state government to release the figures of black money deposited in cooperative banks of the state after demonetization and also release the names of the depositors,” he said.