GSCB's crucial meet on cutting
down number of directors today
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
In what could be one of the toughest decisions it has had to take till date, Goa State Co-operative Bank will discuss cutting down the number of directors, who form its board, in a crucial meeting on November 8.
This is after the Registrar of Co-operative Societies had written to the state government recommending that GSCB reduce the size of its board.
Unless GSCB takes a final decision on reducing the number of directors and get its by-laws registered under state registrar, the state government cannot infuse Rs 35 crore of share capital in the bank as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India.
Infusion of fresh capital by the state government is very important as GSCB’s accumulated losses stood at Rs 53 crore as on March 31, 2016.
The whole saga started when a decision was taken to bifurcate GSCB’s Daman and Diu branches into a separate co-operative bank.
Consequently, GSCB would lose its multi-state status and will have to be registered under Goa’s registrar as an apex co-operative bank of the state.
In its avatar as a multi-state bank, it was registered under central registrar. Now that it has to be registered under state registrar, its by-laws have to be approved by state’s registrar. But, registrar of Goa has suggested pruning the number of directors.
S V Lotlikar, managing director of GSCB, said, “We will discuss registrar's suggestions in the board meeting and whatever board recommends will be presented to the general body to take the final decision.”
Lotlikar, however, was quick to add that board can’t take a decision on this matter as that can be done only in the general body meeting, which should happen sometime by the end of this month.
As of now, GSCB has 16 elected directors, two of them are from Daman and Diu, who will go once separate Daman and Diu Co-operative Bank is created. But it appears that GSCB will have to take a final call on reducing the number of directors further down from 14 in the board meeting today.
