The High Court of Himanchal Pradesh has sent a notice to the registrar, HP State Cooperative Societies, and the KCCB Managing Director on a petition filed by Jagdish Sapehia, chairman of the dissolved board of Kangra Central Cooperative Bank.
In his petition Sapehia-a congressman has highlighted the alleged high-handedness of the newly constituted BJP govt in dissolving the elected Board of the Bank in April. The news was covered extensively by Indian Cooperative in these columns.
The state govt has levelled charges of unfair means indulged in by the erstwhile Board led by 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.
Earlier, Himachal Pradesh cooperative minister Rajiv Sehjal had said in the state assembly the state government may handover the Kangra Cooperative Bank the nonperforming assets case to CBI for investigation.
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.
Keshav Korla, one of the directors of the bank who has been alleging wrong-doings by the bank’s management says as per the RBI guidelines, no fresh recruitment can be carried out if the NPAs are above 10 per cent. As per the latest figures, the NPAs of the bank seem to have gone beyond 17 to 18 per cent, he added.
In a way that barely arouses any curiosity, while Sapehia is a Congress nominee and his critic Korla from the BJP. Many local cooperators see it as a fight between the two political parties vying to get control of the bank. Cooperators, however, give credence to the story of mounting NPAs.