Arunachal: Apex Bank revival process complete

Itanagar, Aug 6: The efforts of the Arunachal Pradesh government to revive the State Cooperative Apex Bank, which had become sick since 2004 following a loan scam, reached its final phase today.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu handed over the cheques to the respective Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the 16 districts for disbursing the amount to the depositors, thus completing the revival process.

Seeking the cooperation of all people of the state, particularly MPs, ministers and MLAs in his efforts to speed up the development process, Mr Khandu, in his address, said, ''I cannot do anything alone without your wholehearted support.'' Claiming that he had fulfilled his commitment given on April nine immediately after taking oath as Chief Minister, Mr Khandu assured that the people, who had lost hope of getting back their money deposited in the bank, would be paid before August 15.

''The payment to the 1,52,223 depositors should be video recorded to avoid wrong payment,'' he said adding that the loan recovery process would be expedited cautiously and no defaulters would be spared. He urged all the DCs to ensure judicious disbursement of the amount through proper monitoring.

Moreover, a bill would be enacted soon to amend the Bank Clause and provision made so that a public leader would not be appointed as the bank's chairman. Instead, either the chief secretary or finance commissioner would be appointed as its functional head for bringing in professionalism, he stated.

Disclosing that his government had already suspended more than 20 bank officials and initiated legal action against them, the Chief Minister said 200 more such officials, responsible for the sorry state of affairs of the bank, would be suspended soon.

The government had already handed over the bank's case to the state vigilance to probe into the matter and hand over the report to High Court for further inquiry by CBI, Mr Khandu said adding that he would not spare anybody involved in the bank's mismanagement. Later, speaking to mediapersons, the Chief Minister said his government had already approached various financial institutions for loans to revive the bank and also received good response.

''The National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC) has agreed to provide Rs 200 crore loan at four per cent interest for smooth functioning of the bank after payment to the depositors,'' he said.

The amount would be given on loan to other institutions at 12 per cent interest and the eight per cent interest benefit annually would be utilised for paying salaries to the bank employees, he added.

On August four, Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes handed over a draft of Rs 225 crore to Arunachal Cooperation Minister Lombo Tayeng for revival of the bank.

''These achievements are confidence building measures to make Arunachal a front ranking state of the country,'' Mr Fernandes said while handing over the draft. He also said he was confident that the Chief Minister would be capable of taking the state forward to its desired destination.

UNI