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| Saturday, February 12, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Defaulters’ names to
be on website: AIBEA |
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Why can’t CAG audit
TRAI accounts?
Much song & dance about ladies
at work Ohio team offers joint ventures 11 pc below poverty line in
Chandigarh PSB sets up VSAT link
Defaulters’ names to be on
website: AIBEA CHANDIGARH, Feb 11 — The names of big bank loan defaulters from the corporate sector will be available on the website soon. The Punjab Bank Employees’ Federation, an affiliate of the All-India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), has planned to do so. The federation has taken a leaf from the book of the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Mr N. Vittal, who recently put the names of certain corrupt IAS and IPS officers on the CVC’s website. Mr N.K. Gaur, secretary of the Punjab Bank Employees’ Federation, told TNS here today that the various associations of bank employees wanted to expose the scandal behind the so-called sickness of banks. “Let the people in the country know who made the banks sick”, Mr Gaur said. As much as Rs 58,000 crore are against the big guns belonging to the corporate sector. In fact, Mr Gaur estimated that the amount due against defaulters was more than Rs 1,00,000 crore but as interest is freezed on the loan declared as non-performing asset (NPA), the amount calculated by the banking industry was Rs 58,000 crore, he said. Mr Gaur is a member of the decision making body of the association which represents over 10 lakh employees. Already a signature campaign has been launched by various bank employees' associations to educate people that how big guns belonging to the corporate sector have milked the banking industry dry in the past 50 years. A target has been fixed to collect three crore signatures under the campaign. Those signing the list are briefed about the story behind the non-performing assets (NPAs) and about the defaulters. Various federations affiliated to the AIBEA, according to Mr Gaur, will march to Parliament on March 8 to highlight the issue of NPAs and names of the defaulters. After the conclusion of the march, a memorandum will be submitted to the President, urging him to direct the Central Government to enact laws declaring the wilful defaulters as perpetrators of a criminal offence. A small farmer unable to pay a loan of the cooperative bank is put behind bars but there is no such provision for dishonest defaulters against whom Rs 58,000 crore are due, rues Mr Gaur. The AIBEA will hold a meeting in Delhi on March 6 to prepare a list of the names of the defaulters to be made public. Already lists have been prepared. These are being published in a small way. The managements of certain banks are signing compromise deals with defaulters by accepting part of the dues against them. Interests of banks and thousands of honest account holders in these institutions are being sacrificed by the managements.Mr Gaur says. “Who are the managements to decide to write off part of dues? The money belongs to those who have accounts in the banks,” he said. Another fraud which is being played is adjustment of the capital provided by the Central Government against the NPAs. Mr Gaur said that certain banks had adjusted the capital against the amount not recovered from defaulters while accepting part payment from him/her. In the past years, the Centre had provided capital to the banks which had eroded their capital base due to heavy amount of NPAs on their records. The Centre should not allow such a practice. The capital was provided to these banks to enlarge their market base and for survival, and not for adjustment against NPAs, he added. Giving details, Mr Gaur said there were 5,221 persons against whom defaulting amount is more than Rs 1 crore of public sector banks. The total amount against such persons is around Rs 27,777 crore. There are 2,302 persons against whom Rs 12,026 crore was due for recovery of private banks and other financial institutions. The gross profit of the banking industry is on the rise but the net profit was going down due to enhancement in the provisioning amount for dealing with the problem created by NPAs. Mr Gaur said the
association would not allow the Central Government to
reduce the government’s stake in the public sector
banks come what may. |
Why can’t CAG audit TRAI accounts? NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Centre after taking strong exception to the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Ordinance taking away the power of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit the accounts of the regulatory body. After hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging certain amendments inserted in the TRAI Act by the January 24 ordinance, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S.N. Variava and Justice Cyriac Joseph also issued notices to the Union Ministries of Law and Justice, Finance, Communications and the CAG.“How can the audit power of CAG in any financial matter be taken away,” the court asked while directing the respondents to file replies by March 6, the next date of hearing. The amendment made by the Ordinance said as the decisions of TRAI could be challenged before an appellate Tribunal, the same should not be “subject to audit”. “Where the loss of public money is involved, the matter has to be looked into by CAG,” the court observed. The Bench did not agree with standing counsel H.S. Phoolka’s contention that there was provision of appeal before the Appellate Tribunal provides safeguards against any possible “irregularity” by TRAI, saying that “any financial aspect has to be looked into by CAG. The court however, did not agree with petitioner advocate B.L. Wadhera’s contention regarding the Ordinance taking away the power of the high court to hear appeals against TRAI’s decisions. The court said there were many instances where appeals against decisions of several tribunals directly lie with the Supreme Court. “This would reduce the cumbersome legal procedure,” the court said, adding the power to challenge the orders of TRAI under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution was there and any one could seek relief under those provisions. Another function
excluded from the CAG purview relates to TRAI’s
authority to issue directions from time to time to
service providers. |
Much song & dance about ladies at work HYDERABAD, Feb 11 (UNI) — One-third of all-Indian women executives leave organisations because they perceive a lack of intellectual stimulation and more than three-fourths of them maintain that they have to work much harder to prove themselves at the work place. A recent survey conducted by the Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia and Cosmode Management Research Centre here, found that four out of 10 chief executives considered the advancement of women to be “critical and very important”. About 25 per cent put it as “not important”, 40 per cent of CEOs believed that women’s opportunities for advancement had improved greatly in the past five years and 60 of women believed that it had not improved as greatly. Sixty per cent of women executives agreed that women’s advancement in the corporate sector depended on putting career before personal and family life. Thirty-three per cent women wanted increased intellectual stimulation. More than 100 top Indian corporations across various industries in public and private sectors were surveyed during the study. About 400 managers of all levels and functions (both women and men) responded. When queried whether women should stay out of the workplace, 40 per cent of the women disagreed against 22 per cent men. The bias was tangible when 21 per cent of the women executives and 10 per cent of male executives disagreed that they get special privileges at work place. On whether being a woman was low on credibility, 8 per cent of women respondents agreed against a mere 1.5 per cent male respondents. A large number of women also believed that they were left out of important decision makings. Contrarily, the survey indicated that senior women managers believed that there was too much of a song and dance about women at work. They believed that women executives, given right competence, skill and commitment could reach right at the top. Among the reasons that
hold women back from top management, in the opinion of
women executives were male stereotyping and
preconceptions of women (52 per cent), exclusion from
informal networks of communication (49 per cent) and lack
of significant general management/line experience (47 per
cent). |
Ohio team
offers joint ventures CHANDIGARH, Feb 11— A US delegation here has offered joint venture partnership to the Haryana and Punjab governments in several areas. The delegation from Ohio yesterday evinced interest to work with the two state governments in the areas of pollution control, technical training, agri-processing, light engineering between academic technology institutes and industry, a PHDCCI statement said here. The four-member delegation led by Ohio Aerospace Institute President Michael J. Salkind met HSIDC Managing Director Harbaksh Singh and offered help in providing preliminary information of the focus areas. The institute will organise seminars in the region to offer technology-led collaborations to increase trade, support educational exchanges and create beneficial relationship with Ohio. The delegation, which also visited PSIDC to explore collaboration in agri-processing, was given assurance of setting up industries here with entrepreneurs from Ohio. The team later met Ms Vineeta Rai, Adviser to the UT Administrator and discussed possible ventures in the city. The team also visited
the Technical Teachers’ Training Institute here and
expressed willingness to work with it to bridge the gap
between institutions and industry in a changing global
environment. TTTI’s Prof Subramanium said that
customised training of students and teachers had become
an exigency considering the pressures on such
institutions. |
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MUMBAI, Feb 11 (PTI) — SEBI has sounded alarm bells over the volatility in stock markets by directing five major exchanges to impose incremental additional capital and margins on their respective top 25 brokers in the form of cash or fixed deposits only for the next four weeks. SEBI has withdrawn the
existing facility of accepting additional capital/margins
by way of bank guarantees or securities in the case of 25
brokers of the National, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and
Ahmedabad stock exchanges. All stock indices are on the
rise with the BSE Sensex crossing the 6,000 mark before
closing at 5933.56 today as the exchanges witnessed
aggressive buying on the back of increased FII activity. |
11 pc below poverty line in Chandigarh NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (PTI) — India has witnessed a sharp decline in poverty with the number of people living below the poverty line coming down from 56.44 per cent in 1973-74 to 37.24 per cent in 1993-94, India Rural Development Report 1999 has said. Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh account for 51 per cent of the country’s poor and together with Assam, Orissa and West Bengal, they add up to about 57 per cent of the total in the country. Himachal Pradesh saw its population living below the poverty line rise from 16.28 per cent in 1987-88 to 30.34 per cent 1993-94. Delhi, which had over 67 per cent of its population living below the poverty line in 1987-88, saw a quantum jump in per capita income, scaling down the figure to below 2 per cent in 1993-94. Similarly, Chandigarh
had only 11.35 per cent population below the poverty line
in 1993-94, down from 45.80 per cent in 1987-88. |
PSB sets
up VSAT link NEW DELHI, Feb 11 — Punjab and Sind Bank has established VSAT connectivity under infinet network of the RBI in six cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Ludhiana — for providing latest banking facilities to its customers. A bank statement said here today that the bank has also provided e-mail connectivity to 106 offices/branches which will facilitate quick transfer of funds and realisation of cheques electronically. The facility is being started at 23 selected branches from February 15 and will be made available at about 100 branches from April 1. The bank is giving due
importance to technological upgradation of the branches.
It has introduced two ATMs each at Mumbai and Delhi and
soon this facility will be introduced at Chandigarh also. |
Love in
virtual world CHANDIGARH, Feb 11 — Gifting flowers and chocolates on Valentine Day will soon be passe as Vsplash com. has come up with a unique way to express one’s love on this day. Vsplash is offering gift packs which, in addition to presenting an exquisite jewellery to one’s beloved, would have details for creating special Valentine web sites. The gift packs have
multimedia web sites with graphics, colour and music,
which enables the buyer to create his/her personalised
site. With the choice of using 216 colours, background,
text, design and music, one can also have one’s
photographs on the site. |
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Bullion Bacardi contest SKF Bearings Castrol net up MC bonds IEC Softwares |
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