the goan I network
MApusa
Taking exception to the chaos created at the AGM of the Mapusa Urban Coop Bank (MUCB), founder chairman and director Ramakant Khalap said a handful of “anti-social” elements with “political backing” attempted to disrupt the meeting and create hurdles instead of helping to find a way out.
He also warned that the membership of these persons can be suspended for creating chaos at the meeting.
“At every meeting, just a few persons are trying to create problems. I want everyone to know the politics that is being played against the bank,” Khalap said.
He, however, said a firm “no” when questioned whether BJP was targeting him or his family for the present financial crisis in the MUCB.
“Four or five isolated people do not make BJP or Congress. When I attend the meeting of the bank, I am not a Congressman. I am just a simple shareholder like thousands of others,” Khalap said.
Taking the names of the anti-social elements, he said, businessman Kiran Shirodkar had zero balance in the bank and had shares worth Rs 12,000 while Yeshwant Gaundalkar had zero deposit and Rs 3,725 worth of shares in the bank.
Similarly, he said businessman Paresh Raikar had only Rs 6,000 as deposit and Rs 5,000 worth of shares in his name, while former MUCB staffer Kamlakant Bhartu had a deposit of Rs 1,208 and possessed just two shares of the bank. He also said Mapusa Councillor, Rajsingh Rane, had a deposit of Rs, 3,068 and 200 shares with the bank.
“People who have just one or two or three shares in the bank are creating chaos. If these people think that the bank is going down then they are free to remove their deposits and go,” Khalap said.
He assured all the MUCB depositors that the bank had enough assets to pay and clear the deposits of all those people who have parked their monies in the bank.
The former founder chairman also said that majority of the shareholders were with him and trusted him. “Khalap family has contributed a lot to this State,” he said.
Khalap was flanked by Chairman Gurudas Natekar and other directors, Mangaldas Naik, Tulio de Sousa and Michael Carrasco.
Shareholders hit back at Khalap, AGM scenes were ‘natak’
MAPUSA: Mapusa councillor and shareholder, Rajsingh Rane, said the theatrics displayed at the AGM were enacted by a family that had scant respect for shareholders and concern for depositors. “Today’s scenes witnessed at the AGM were a family drama. It was a pre-planned ‘natak’. What has been done today was to protect them from lies,” Rane said hitting back at the Khalap family. He said that shareholders had the right to ask questions and the management to answer at the general body meeting.
Coincidentally, Rane also refused to buy the argument that this was a fight for supremacy between the BJP and the Khalap family. “Please don’t give this a political colour. I am here as a shareholder and not as a councillor or with any political affiliation,” Rane said while addressing an impromptu press conference.
Businessman Kiran Shirodkar also hit back at Khalap for targeting them for having minimum deposit in the bank. “How can we park our money in this bank when it is collapsing,” Shirodkar said. Another shareholder questioned the chairman’s decision to pass the audit report at the AGM when the latter had passed an adverse opinion in his report. Businessman, Paresh Raikar, Kamlakant Bhartu, Yeshwant Gaundalkar and others were also present.
