Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, June 28: The J&K State Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Bank (SCARDB), which have never shown profit in last about two decades and registered a loss of about Rs 6 crore during last financial year, may face additional burden of Rs 3 crore with the regularization of about 120 employees, mostly alleged `backdoor’ appointees.
Minister for Cooperatives and Ladakh Affairs, Chering Dorjay after coming to know about the intensions and hasty efforts of the Managing Director of the Bank and other Bank officials to initiate process of regularization, has stalled the process by issuing an order. He directed that since the bank is already running into huge losses, it is unable to face additional burden on account of the hiked salary of the employees appointed during 2014.
Highly placed sources in the State Cooperatives Department told the Excelsior that the bank which always remained a `white elephant’ for the Government has already been black listed by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). It has stopped financial assistance to this bank about 16 years ago. The bank which came under fire and hit the headlines of several newspapers in the recent past due to alleged nearly 120 `backdoor’ appointments during Cong-NC regime, is still running on crutches. Its 15 branches in Jammu region are still headless. Five posts of District Managers are also lying vacant in the region.
Minister for Cooperatives, Chering Dorjay when contacted said that he has stopped the process of regularization of staff. He said the bank is already in losses worth cores and only last year its cumulative losses have gone to Rs 6 crore. “Therefore, we decided to put an hold the process of regularization for the time being. If the fiscal condition of the bank improves this decision can be reviewed,” he added.
Replying to a question, the Cooperative Minister said that during recent Bank review meeting in Srinagar, he along with Secretary/ Registrar Cooperatives stressed upon the Managing Director, General Manager and other senior staff of the Bank to improve recovery position. Some improvement in NPA and recovery position has also been witnessed during this financial year especially in Jammu region. This year, as the MD told that the bank’s financial position will show some improvement. “But most of the recovery which has shown improvement, generally pertained to Jammu region”.
Dorjay said with the stoppage of support by NABARD, the fiscal health of the bank has been affected and few years back, financial assistance worth Rs 25 crore was also provided as one time measure by State Government. “Some liabilities were cleared but the bank has not shown profit till date. The old liability and loss is years old affair and it has nothing to do with the functioning of last two-three years.” We are trying our best to improve its functioning,” the Minister said.
While the Managing Director of the Bank, Mohd Aslam Bhat claimed that loss has been contained and no extra staff was ever appointed, the documents compiled from the Cooperative department and SCARD bank revealed that against the 41 posts of recovery helpers , two drivers vide Advt Notice No. Adm/01 of 2012, dated 4-6-2012, 120 persons including 94 recovery helpers, 24 sweepers and two drivers, were appointed during 2014 on the minimum wages of Rs 3000 without publishing the selection list on the terms and conditions as per the notice and bank’s recruitment rules.
It was done in sheer violation of Board Decision No 4 (9), dated 29-1-2012 and MD’s own order 25 of 2012 dated 29-1-12, under endorsement No. PS/MD/101-103/COJ/ 2012/ SCARDDB dated 29-01-2012. Within the span of two years their wages were enhanced from Rs 3000 to 5000 and then to Rs 10,000, thus draining the hard earned money of public invested with the bank in the shape of fixed deposit receipts.
The then Registrar Cooperatives, Basharat Saleem acting on a complaint initiated an inquiry and appointed Deputy Registrar Farooq Ahmed Khan as inquiry officer. But this inquiry which was apparently influenced by a `few insiders’ also covered up some controversial aspects of excess appointment of staff -30 recovery helpers and 24 sweepers and even tried to protect the guilty. The sources said that the MD and other officers at the helm of affairs are not projecting correct picture of the Bank’s fiscal health and recruitment irregularities before the Minister and even the Registrar concerned.
They have cleverly managed to conceal many things and painted just rozy picture before the Cooperative Minister during recent review meet in Srinagar but the fact remained that the bank was heading towards crisis if some remedial measures were not taken immediately. It has been learnt that bank has invested more than Rs 60 crore in the mutual funds in various private commercial banks through various brokers and in return are being paid commission @ Rs 0.50 percent of the invested amount that is Rs 50,000 for investing Rs one core and a royalty bounce @ 0.25 % per annum.
The bank authorities by such unfair means had earned huge money by way of commission from brokers. Due to post demonetization the bank has suffered massive loss on account of depreciation of value share as well. Even the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) has also deposited Rs 25 crore in the bank through a broker on commission basis.
Managing Director, Mohd Aslam Bhat and another senior officer of the bank when contacted claimed that bank was still facing shortage of staff. They said still against the sanctioned strength of 375, there are just 246 employees in the bank. There are total 54 bank branches in the state of which 24 are in Jammu region. They said there are 18 posts of Branch heads and five district managers lying vacant in Jammu region. Even in some branches there are hardly two or three staff members.
They also disclosed that in Jammu division the bank braches at Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Nowshera, Sunderbani, Poonch, Udhampur, Billawar, Ramnagar, Basohli, Kathua, Rajouri and Marh besides Hiaranagar, Akhnoor and Domana are headless. Junior clerical cadre employees are managing the work of these posts. They said the loss this year is expected to brought down considerably from previous loss of Rs 6 crore. The financial health of the bank has shown significant improvement in Jammu region and in Jammu some profit has been shown but over all, the state we will be still in loss. The NPA position has also improved.
The MD admitted that regularization of staff members appointed during 2014 has been stopped by the minister. Their wages were hiked as most of them were not ready to work on the meager wages of Rs 3000 or Rs 5000 per month. Therefore, we decided to give reasonable hike because, there was pressure to run the branches and ensure smooth functioning of the bank in the absence of any support from the NABARD or State Government, he added.
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