44 political leaders could be debarred from cooperative bank polls

Forty four top political leaders, including former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and dozens of sitting or former legislators from Congress and NCP, will probably be debarred from contesting any election of cooperative organisations for the next ten years, as the cooperative department has sent them a showcause notice. These politicians were found to be allegedly responsible for the dubious activities of nine district cooperative banks including the Mumbai Cooperative bank.

The state government has recently issued an ordinance that makes a provision to disallow directors of cooperative banks who are responsible for losses and irregularities, for the next 10 years. Though the amendment bill in the cooperative law was not passed in the winter session of the state legislature at Nagpur last December, the BJP government ruled out objections of the Opposition and introduced the ordinance last month.

According to Sunil Pawar, additional commissioner and special registrar, all 44 directors were responsible for losses in district cooperative banks.

He said, “The Reserve Bank of India took action against banks including those in Mumbai, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Nashik, Dhule-Nandurbar, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Kolhapur, Latur, Parbhani, Aurangabad, Akoka, Amravati and Yeotmal in 2012. The RBI suspended their licence and disallowed them from continuing.”

He further said that due to lacunae in the present cooperative law, the cooperative department could not take stringent action against the erring directors and hence the state introduced an ordinance so that such directors would stay away from the cooperative field for the next ten years.

State cooperation minister Chandrakant Patil said, “There were no provisions to stop corrupt directors from contesting elections of cooperative banks or cotton mills or sugar factories.” He added that though the cooperative department tried to take action against them, the directors would pressurise the state government for stay orders as they were in power in the state. “Now, all such directors cannot contest elections,” he added.

Mr Pawar said the notice has been issued on January 29, 30 and February 1 to the 44 directors and they have been given 15 days to submit their reply.

Meanwhile, Hasan Mushrif, former NCP minister and director of Kolhapur bank, said that the department has accepted his plea to extend the deadline till March 2. Another director Shyam Saner from Dhule-Nandurbar bank alleged, “The BJP government has decided to keep Congress-NCP leaders out from cooperative sector and hence we know, our reply will be denied and we have to resign.”

Dilip Sopal, former NCP minister from Kolhapur bank, echoed Mr Saner’s charges and said it was “political vendetta”, as the BJP could not win the cooperative sector. Ajit Pawar, and Jayant Patil, MLC of the Peasants and Workers Party, did not respond to calls.