PORVORIM: Cooperation Minister Govind Gaude on Monday rued that people deposited their monies in the Visionaries Urban Cooperative Society Limited despite appealing to them neither to deposit nor to make any business with the Society.
Gaude was replying to a zero hour mention by Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco in the Legislative Assembly.
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Aleixo Reginaldo said that there is fear and anxiety in the minds of the people due to increasing NPAs (non-performing assets) while, two urban co-operative banks had gone into liquidation and the innocent depositors cannot withdraw their monies due to restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
He also pointed out that the High Court has also set aside the appointment of the chairman of the Goa State Co-operative Bank Ltd. He demanded action against those involved in defrauding the cooperative credit societies.
Gaude said that the Registrar of Co-operative Societies had published from time-to-time notices appealing to depositors neither to deposit their monies nor to make any business with the Visionaries Urban Cooperative Society Limited after FIRs were registered against those involved in committing the fraud. Despite of this, the people deposited their monies, he said, adding that the government cannot be blamed for this.
Ruling out the request made the members urging government to invest money to repay the principle amount of the depositors, Gaude said, “I cannot give assurance to members to give money from the government treasury because more such cooperative societies will make similar demands.”
Aleixo Reginaldo, Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa and Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao demanded to know how the Visionaries Society was allowed to continue its operations and collect deposits from the people even after the fraud had come to light in 2012.
D’Sa said that in 2009, a fraud amounting to Rs 5.48 lakh was detected and three board of directors were arrested by the Colva Police.
He said that the audit conducted for the year 2017-18 found that the society was running into losses and cheques issued to depositors were dishonoured.
