the goan I network
MAPUSA
With the management becoming their favourite punching bag, a section of the shareholders of the Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank (MUCB) on Wednesday accused the board of directors (BoDs) of committing a fraud against the shareholders by wrongly framing the merger resolution.
They also blamed the BoDs for failing to verify the credentials of the Punjab and Maharashtra Coop Bank (PMC) before agreeing to hold merger talks with the Mumbai-based bank, which has now come under the RBI scanner.
“In the special general body meeting, we had clearly told the management that merger can be held with PMC bank or TJSB or DNS bank. Despite our strong opposition they went ahead and included the ‘any other well-managed coop bank’ words in the resolution. This is wrong and a fraud against us, which is not acceptable,” said Rajsingh Rane, who is also a councillor in Mapusa Municipal Council and a BJP karyakarta.
The General Manager of MUCB, Shailendra Sawant, however, denied of any transgression and the resolution was drafted as per the general body’s decision.
Blaming the BoDs for the sorry state and bringing the bank on the brink, Rane said that the management instead of taking sincere steps to resolve the issue was engaging in lies and deceit.
He sought immediate intervention of the government by taking over the management of the MUCB instead of leaving it with a bunch of “liars”.
“It’s time for the government to intervene and lead the process of merging the bank with the TJSB which is the next bank in the line as per the resolution,” he said while addressing a news conference in Mapusa.
Questioning the efforts of the management in resolving the present stalemate on the status of the bank, Paresh Raikar a businessman, opined that the embargo on PMC bank was “shocking”.
“What if the RBI restrictions had come after the MUCB was merged with the PMC bank? This could have had catastrophic impact,” Raikar said.
Losing trust with the present management of MUCB, he suggested that government should nominate a team of advisers to find a way out of the impasse.
Kamlakant Bartu and Kiran Shirodkar also spoke.
General Manager of MUCB, Shailendra Sawant said the resolution was drafted as per the wishes of the general body. “The resolution copy that is being circulated by the section of the shareholders was only a draft copy and not the final copy. The final copy will have the signatures of the chairman and the general manager,” said Sawant.
