After two banks issued public notices for auctioning realty trader Sudhir Basnet’s land and property, depositors of Oriental Saving and Credit Cooperatives, which is also promoted by Basnet, on Monday approached the Department of Cooperative (DoC), expressing concerns about the recovery of their deposits. Kumari Bank and Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank issued separate notices on Sunday and Monday, respectively, for auctioning Basnet’s property after the latter defaulted loans. Over 7,000 depositors have deposits worth Rs 4 billion in Oriental, which landed in trouble after Basnet failed in his realty business. Basnet has been accused of misappropriating a huge amount of deposits from the cooperative. About 150 Oriental depositors reached the DoC and expressed concern over the banks’ move to sell Basnet’s property which could result in the depositors not getting their deposits back. The depositors demanded the banks be prevented from auctioning the land without their consent. Kumari Bank has issued a 15-day notice for auctioning Basnet-owned Kohinoor Hill Housing at Kalanki, Kathmandu, five ropanies of land in Imadol, Lalitpur, and five bigha land in Duwagadhi, Jhapa. Kohinoor Hill Housing includes around 1,200 sq m land and six residential apartments in Kalanki, Kathmandu. NCC Bank has also issued a 15-day notice for auctioning more than 14 bigha land in Mechinagar, Jhapa, and 17 bigha land in Dharan, Sunsari. Laxmi Bahadur Bati, a member of the Oriental depositors’ struggle committee, said they were worried whether they would get back their deposits after the initiation of the auction process by the banks. “Basnet has repeatedly pledged to repay our deposits, but the banks’ notices have made us hopeless and helpless,” he said. Chhetra Kumari Dhanshahi, a woman in her 80s from Duwakot, Bhaktapur, said she has not been able to initiate treatment of her handicapped son as the cooperative failed to pay back her deposits. She has deposited Rs 3 million in Oriental, which she received after selling her land. The depositors also expressed concern over the “slow pace of work” of a probe committee headed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Deputy Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari, which has been mandated to find out the real cause of trouble in cooperatives and recommend ways to solve them. The government had formed the committee six months ago after it received a number of complaints against cooperatives involved in embezzling depositors’ money. However, NRB Spokesperson Bhaskarmani Gnawali said the banks have right to auction the collateral of defaulted loans. “As Basnet’s case is complex, I also have to see what is going on,” he said. The DoC has asked the members of troubled cooperatives to take initiatives for holding special annual general meetinsg. “Such a meeting can sack existing board members involved in malpractices and seize their fixed property to get back depositors’ money,” said DoC Deputy Registrar Upendra Bahadur Dhungana.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 08:34:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015