Bihar: When govt apathy leads to supersession of 22 DCCBs’ board!

Bihar is a laggard not only in governance but also in holding elections. The boards of 22 district central cooperative banks of Bihar are going to be superseded on 17th January 2023, as the existing boards of directors are completing their tenure. This has arisen from the delay in the elections of these banks.

Despite several reminders and letters the concerned authority failed to organize the elections to cooperative banks on time. After superseding board, administrators will be appointed in these banks.

Bihar based cooperative banks’ functionaries had met the Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, State Cooperative Minister and others in connection with the elections, but to no avail.

The last elections in Bihar State Cooperative Bank and DCCBs were held in 2018 but the term of Bihar StCB board members will be completed in April 2023.

Talking to the Indian Cooperative, Gopal Ganj DCCB Chairman Mahesh Rai said, “We are completing the five-year tenure and our board will be superseded on 17th January 2023. Now the administrator will take over the charge – either the District Magistrate or the District Development Commissioner. We have sent several reminders about the elections to the concerned authorities but so far, no steps have been taken to hold them.

“Besides, there is no provision of giving extension to the existing board in Bihar State Cooperative Act. The only other option is to bring in an ordinance in the state assembly”, he added.

In his comment, Muzaffarpur DCCB Chairman Amar Pandey said, “Amidst, the delay in the elections, our board will be superseded. We have written many letters in this regard but nothing has been done so far. We tried to meet leaders individually to apprise them of the delay in the elections”.

However, our efforts to contact Ramesh Chaubey, Chairman, Bihar State Cooperative Bank, for his comment did not meet with success.

It is being reported that after the dissolution of boards of cooperative banks, the new boards will be reconstituted under the new rules of the Union Ministry of Cooperatives.

Under the new rule of RBI, it is necessary to appoint a person with at least eight years of work experience in the banking sector as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in every cooperative bank.

At present, there are 23 cooperative banks in the state, out of which boards are active in 22 banks. Whereas, the board of Supaul District Central Cooperative Bank is superseded.

Meanwhile, towards implementing the RBI guidelines, Bihar State Cooperative Bank invited applications for the post of Chief Executive Officer for17 DCCBs.