Kangra central co-op bank officials, board of directors in ‘tug-of-war’

Kangra Central Cooperative Bank (KCCB) seems to be going through a bad phase, “needing intervention of the authorities concerned”. The financial institution, having 220 branches and around 1,300 employees, is apparently in the middle of a crisis owing to a tug-of-war between the board of directors (BoDs) and top officials who are in a deadlock.

Meanwhile, sources said the situation was affecting the reputation of the financial institution.

It is learnt that the Managing Director (MD) of the bank has not attended any of the board meetings since September last year for which many reasons are afloat. But this continued absence is seriously hampering the bank’s affairs and the situation has now become alarming. It is also giving wrong signals to the depositors worried about the safety of their deposits.

At the recently held BoD meeting, the GMs abstained on health grounds, though it is alleged that they had prior information of this meeting. In the absence of the MD and both the GMs, the BoD decided to snatch the powers of the GMs for being absent from the board meeting. As per the precedent, the proceedings of the decision taken by the BODs at the meeting are approved by the MD and the GMs of the bank.

The absence of all the top officials has led to uncertainty over the operations and fiscal health of the bank, according to insiders. In spite of repeated calls, the MD of the bank was not available for his comments.

Bank Chairman Kuldip Pathania, who is away for training with some BoD members, said: “It is disgraceful on part of the GMs to abstain from a crucial meeting, about which they had complete information. The BoD has now unanimously decided to take away their powers.” But the irony is that the BoDs’ decision is awaiting the MD’s consent for the last one week.

Registrar Cooperative Societies said that the matter must be resolved internally by the bank, and their office would intervene only when officially asked to do so. In spite of repeated calls, Secretary, Cooperation Department, was unavailable for comments.