Team Herald
MARGAO: Following heated discussion, the general body of the Madgaum Urban Co-Operative Bank Ltd on Sunday said that it was not in favour of writing off 30 per cent of the principal amount from defaulters from the mining sector.
The AGM also resolved to appoint a Pune-based consultancy firm to guide the bank on bringing it back on track and also asked the Board of Directors to prepare a list of all receivables from the various defaulters.
The AGM witnessed heated discussions as it was pointed out that the losses were amounting to nearly Rs 35 crore and mostly were from those involved in the mining sector. The contention that the bank had seized assets worth nearly Rs 50 crore was not acceptable to the shareholders who asserted that these assets were all overvalued.
“These assets are neither maintainable nor auctionable because they are overvalued and many of the properties have no access or have tenants,” alleged a share holder.
Chandan Naik, a former employee of the bank, said that in many cases loans were sanctioned first and report on the applicant were submitted subsequently. Another share holder alleged that undergraduates were appointed as bank managers.
Many shareholders pointed out that people from the mining sector who had taken loans from the bank were moving around in BMW and other posh vehicles while not paying any amount to the bank and demanded that the valuables be seized.
When the names of the mining defaulters were read out, it was discovered that those who had submitted collateral were present for the meeting while those who did not were not present.
While the Chairman Ramakant Angle and Vice Chairman Kishore Narvenkar were mostly silent, Directors Amresh Naik and Krishna Verlekar along with co-opted Director Anup Borkar were responding to the shareholders queries.
The shareholders earlier stoutly rejected the proposal to waive off 30 per cent of the principal amount borrowed by the defaulters to enable them to pay on grounds that the interest was already waived off by the bank.
At the end of the marathon meeting, it was finally decided to seek guidance from a Pune-based consultancy firm to get the bank back on track.
