Save GSCB from financial crisis,Opposition urges govt
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Opposition benches on Friday saw red over the government interference in the functioning of the Goa State Co-operative Bank and urged the ruling BJP not to control the bank but save it from the on-going financial crisis.
The issue of the GSCB came up for discussion Friday following a question raised by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai.
Sardesai along with Opposition members from Congress insisted that the government should try and clear up the loan of Rs 46 crores given by the bank to Kadamba Transport Corporation, the non-payment of which, they reiterated, has plunged the bank into crisis.
The Opposition lashed out at the government for forcing the GSCB Chairman Ramchandra Mule to step down and plotting to take over the bank when it was aware of the fact that elections to the Board of Directors were scheduled to be held in August this year.
Minister for Co-operation, Deepak Dhavlikar however tried to defend all the developments pointing out that whatever action initiated in the last month over the GSCB was on account of directions from NABARD. He elaborated, “They have submitted a letter to us with 19 observations on the unsatisfactory bank operations and directed the government to improve it.”
He pointed out that NABARD in its communiqué to the government has highlighted the deterioration of the bank’s financial position with low credit ratings and increasing NPAs.
Sardesai was joined by other Opposition members including Cumbharjua MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Opposition Leader Pratapsing Rane who expressed dissent over the government’s methodology of interfering in the affairs of the bank through the State Registrar of Co-operative Societies.
Sardesai said that the government was sending wrong signals to investors who would withdraw from the bank. “With the chief minister making statements that the apex bank is falling, there will be a loss of investors’ confidence,” he opined.
Former chief ministers Digambar Kamat and Pratapsing Rane impressed upon the government to clear the KTCL loan.
Sardesai took a dig at the chief minister alleging that the loan had been given to KTC when the latter was the chairman of the KTC during his previous tenure as CM.
It was a common view from the Opposition benches that since the government had then stood guarantor for the loan that it should now pay up the loan.