Maharashtra-based beleaguered Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank which is having an accumulated loss of around Rs 101 crore and is not in a position to directly disburse a crop loan to the farmers, has its elections underway for 10 seats with 22 candidates in the fray.
The board consists of 15 elected directors out of which five have been elected unopposed and the elections will be held for 10 seats. The elections are slated for 21st February 2022 but the final list of candidates after withdrawal came on Thursday evening.
Those who got elected unopposed include former MLA Dnyaneshwar Raosaheb Patil from Shiv Sena, Ex-MLA Rahul Mote brother Madhukar Mote, Ex-Minister Basavaraj Patil brother Bapu Rao Patil, MLA Tanaji Saheb nephew Vikram Sawant, and former Maharashtra Minister Madhukarrao Chavan son Sunil Chavan.
Ironically, instead of reviving the bank, the state government is busy conducting the elections of the bank. The bank is not having any income to disburse crop loans directly to the farmers and giving it from the refinancing scheme of Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, said one of the local co-operators of Maharashtra.
“The bank has to recover the dues of Rs 465 crore from the two defunct cooperative sugar mills including Terna and Tuljabhavani and their unpaid dues have led to the financial weakness of the bank, said Vinay Patil, MD of the bank to the Indian Cooperative correspondent on the phone.
“Meanwhile, the bank has given the Terna sugar mill to Bhairavnath Sugar Works Limited on rent for 25 years
whereas Tuljabhavani mill given to Gokul Sugar Industries Limited on rent for 15 years”, he added.
“We are hoping that with the revival of these two sugar mills, we will be able to recover the losses and hope that the bank will be revived in a few years”, said its MD.
S. U. Shirapurkar has been appointed as the Returning officer to oversee the election process of the bank. For 10 seats 808 voters are eligible to cast the votes and 8 voting centers have been made.
About 121 individual candidates filed their nomination papers till the last date and only 90 candidates’ nominations were found valid. And 63 candidates withdrew their names.
