the goan I network
PANAJI
At least three ex-chairmen of the Goa State Co-operative Bank Ltd have announced that they will approach the courts against the “controversial” decision of the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies to reject the nominations they filed for the elections to the Apex Cooperative Bank’s Board of Directors.
Former Minister Prakash Velip who was the bank’s chairman over a decade ago, Ramachandra Mule another former chairman and Rajkumar Desai a former vice-chairman of the Bank on Friday jointly made public their decision to approach the Bombay High Court to challenge the Assistant Registrar’s move to reject their papers.
Earlier this week, nominations of 30 applicants for the posts of director which included Velip, Mule and Desai were rejected and as a result seven directors were declared elected unopposed. For the six other director positions, elections are slated to be held on August 25.
The papers of Mule, Velip, Desai besides others such as Avelino D’Silva, Vithoba Desai, Gurudas Sawal, Shashikant Punaji, Urmilla Ulhas Faldesai and Kanchan Kerkar were among those rejected.
The applications were rejected as they failed to fulfill certain technical criterion prescribed under the Co-operative Societies Act.
The Board of Directors of the Apex Cooperative Bank are elected from 13 different allied cooperative societies and there is reservation for women and SC/ST candidates. Beside these there are some co-opted and government appointed directors.
The office of Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) conducts the election process.
The election was necessitated after the Bombay High Court’s direction which stipulates completion of the process by September 2.
It may be recalled that the bank is presently being controlled by a team of three State government appointed administrators who were given charge of the bank in September 2017 in a bid to improve its financial status after it registered losses in consecutive financial years from 2012.
The losses had resulted in erosion of the banks entire share capital and its
reserves fell in the negative net-worth zone.
RBI extends embargo on MUCB by another three months
MAPUSA: The Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank (MUCB) got the much-needed reprieve after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the ongoing embargo on the bank by another three months.
The management of the MUCB was waiting for the decision of the apex bank as the embargo was to end on August 18.
“The RBI has extended the embargo on our bank for another three months until November 18 this year. All the earlier conditions imposed by the central bank remain the same,” said Sailendra Sawant, General Manager of MUCB.
“We are happy with the RBI decision. It gives us breathing space to decide the next course of action,” Sawant said.
Apart from engaging with the Punjab and Maharashtra Coop Bank Ltd (PMC) on the merger talks, he said he expected the State government to appoint an administrator to run the affairs of the bank.
According to the earlier RBI order, only Rs 1,000 could be withdrawn by a depositor from savings or current account. Further, if the depositor was having a liability to the bank, then the amount would have to be first adjusted to the relevant borrowed account.
It may be recalled RBI had imposed certain curbs on the financial transactions of MUCB first on July 24, 2015, which was later reviewed time to time after a period of every six months.
Under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the apex bank has directed MUCB not to grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment or accept fresh deposits without prior approval of the RBI.
Earlier too in 2002, RBI had imposed similar restrictions on the bank.
