Caught in PM’S allegations and ED case, Maharashtra co-op bank gets govt boost

THEMAHARASHTRACABINETON Thursday decided to give recognition to the Maharashtra State Co-operativebank(mscb) byallowing banking transactions of government offices and investment funds from Public Enterprisecorporationsthrough the bank. This comes less than fourmonthsafterprimeminister Narendramodireiteratedtheallegationoffinancialirregularities inmscbanditsallegedlinkswith the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), without naming Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Accordingtotheofficials, the state cooperative bank plays an importantroleinthecooperative sector. The decision was taken duetotheneedtoempowerthis bank and increase rural credit, said the officials.

They said the bank has been qualified for banking transactions and additional investment from corporations considering thefactorssuchasthebankhavingrs16,000croreormoreindeposits with nationalised banks.

A finance department official said,“thestatecooperativebank, Mumbai has a net worth of over Rs4,000croreandhasbeenprofitableforfiveyears. Auditalsohas allocated an A class status to the bankforthefiveconsecutiveyears andcapitaladequacyratioismore than 12%. The bank has not been imposed any financial sanctions orimmediatecorrectiveactionby RBI. Sincethebankhasfulfilledall thesecriteria, it hasbeenqualified forthetransactions.” Fromtimeto time, thefinancedepartmentwill take action to increase the minimumlimitof cashvalue, theofficialsaid.

“Also, thelistofbankswillbe updatedbyincludingorexcluding the names of the relevant banks on this criteria after reviewing every year.”

Ajit Pawar, who is now the state Finance Minister, is sharing powerwiththebjpandshivsena. The BJP in the past had accused him of involvement in “financial irregularities” relatedtothebank.

Theedhadinaprilfileditsfirst chargesheet in the case against Gurucommodityservicespvtltd, Jarandeshwarsugarmillspvtltd andcharteredaccountantyogesh Bagrecha in connection with the MSCB scam. The ED had alleged linksof Ajitpawarandhiswifeto thetwocompaniesbuttheywere notnamedthen.

Thecaserelatestoloansgiven to sugar factories allegedly without following procedure by officials of MSCB even after they turned into Non-performing Assets and their sale to kin of the accusedbelowmarketvalue.