MAPUSA
Placing the blame squarely on the Board of Directors of the Mapusa Urban Co-op Bank (MUCB) for its sorry state of affairs, a section of shareholders led by Mapusa councillor Rajsingh Rane on Friday said the bank has many well-wishers and its fortunes can be revived under a new management.
“If new people take over the affairs of the bank, then MUCB can definitely be revived. There are many shareholders who have an attachment to the bank. This bank will survive this phase,” Rane said. Rane, along with other shareholders of the bank, was addressing a press conference in a hotel in Mapusa.
Speaking further, he demanded with the State government that those directors or the board that is responsible for ruining the bank should be brought to book as per the cooperative act.
“We will approach and demand with the State Cooperative Registrar, Central Registrar and the State government to hold an inquiry to find who are responsible for the mess in the bank and to recover all the losses from them,” Rane said.
He said the bank has gone down due to selfish interest of certain individuals who ensured their presence in the BoDs, directly or by proxy.
“Whenever we tried to float our panel during the bank’s election, our membership was either disqualified or rejected,” Rane said.
Incidentally, Rane is a BJP karyakata who was an office-bearer of the Mapusa BJP Mandal in the last term.
Questioning the sincerity of the present BoD, who now proclaim that they were willing to quit, Rane reminded that majority of the shareholders had demanded their resignation in the last AGM.
“They have no wish to resign. Since the AGM is due next month, this is just another ploy to wriggle out of the situation. Why then they don’t submit their resignations to the State registrar or the central registrar?” he questioned.
To a query that the condition of other cooperative banks in the State was worse and whether politicians at the helm were responsible for the affairs, he said the intention of the management was crucial.
“The intention of the management should be good only then a bank can flourish. There are so many credit societies which are functioning efficiently in the State.”
Some other shareholders Kiran Shirodkar, Paresh Raikar, Yashwant Gawandalkar and Abay Gawandalkar also spoke.
