Thursday, November 3, 2011

Against Pen Urban Co-op Bank Citizens March

Thousands of citizens along with employees of Pen Urban Cooperative Bank from Raigad district started a march to chief minister’s bungalow in Mumbai on Sunday to press for their demands.

As a part of the ‘Save Pen’s Bank’ movement, depositors, employees and account holders of the bank from Pen town of the district started the 72-hour march to Mumbai. The movement was supported by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and the Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September last year imposed stringent restrictions and passed an order for the closure of 18 branches of the bank. Despite this, the bank was said to have released loans for over Rs.500 crore to non-existing account holders without verification of documents.

The RBI, in October last year, imposed a penalty of Rs.1 lakh as the bank failed to satisfactorily respond to a show cause notice.

“The march will culminate at the CM’s residence, where a delegation  will apprise him of the situation,” said Vishwas Utagi, general secretary of AIBEA.

“Many employees have lost their jobs and thousands have lost their money due to scams by the bank’s chairman and directors,” he added. 

Shishir Dharkar, a jewellery exporter and the former chairman of the Pen Co-operative Urban Bank, was last month arrested by the CBI - along with officials from five other companies - for cheating the government’s Mineral Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) of Rs 1,080 crore over a two-year period. This money was then hoarded in foreign banks through hawala transactions.

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