A whopping Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) is lying with 100-odd defaulters of 30 co-operative banks in Gujarat. And 28 of these banks have already been closed down because of liquidity crisis.
Now, even after being armed with the new Securitisation Act, which has empowered the co-operative banks to attach properties of its defaulters, they are yet to initiate any action against the defaulters.
Even the process of serving notices has not been started yet at many banks.
The state co-operation department has already circulated copies of the central notification among the district registrars asking them to ensure that the banks use the new legislation under Securitisation Act without delay.
The state co-operation minister, Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, held a meeting with the minister of state for home, Amit Shah, in Gandhinagar, requesting him to ask police officers to co-operate with the management of closed co-operative banks and help them to process attachment of properties of the defaulters.
The main reason for the lack of action, sources say, is that of the 100-odd main defaulters, most of them are directors of these banks, and in some cases, even the chairman and managing directors of the banks.
"The question is, who will bell the cat? You can't expect the managers of these banks to start the process of attaching properties of these high-profile defaulters. The state government now has washed its hands of the issue, saying the banks and the cops are reluctant to take action," said Prakash Gujar, president of All Gujarat Co-operative Banks Depositors' Association.
But the minister Chudasma believes that his department has done enough in order to 'teach a strict lesson' to such wilful defaulters, regain confidence about co-operative banking among the lakhs of depositors in Gujarat.
"In co-operation with the home department, we have created a two-member committee also in which one senior official from my department and another from the home department will regularly review the process of attachment of properties of the defaulters and subsequent recovery operations by the banks.
"The banks should now stress on 100 per cent implementation of the new law and they can always seek help from the police and senior officials of co-operation department, if they find it difficult to take action against any specific high-profile defaulter," Chudasma said.
According to him, once co-operative banks started implementing the new laws, they will be able to regain their status among depositors.
"The banks should not delay further in recovering these thousands of crores of rupees lying with the defaulters. There are several defaulters whose mortgaged properties are of higher value than the loan amount and reselling those properties after attachment by the banks will help to pay back the general depositors who have lost their hard-earned savings," added the minister.
Amit Shah, the minister of state for home, said, "Police have already started acting on the basis of complaints against the defaulters and because of strong arguments by the public prosecutors, most of the defaulters have been denied anticipatory bail. Still, I have asked senior officers to work in co-ordination with the banks' management and initiate actions."
