ASCARD Bank dying, no pay for staff in 16 years

*     Retired employees in utter penury, some dying without treatment

*    15 years of political interference has landed the bank in bad assets

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 8: Can it be imagined? There is a bank under the State government in Assam the employees of which have been working without getting their salaries and other dues since 2000. The Assam State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development (ASCARD) Bank Limited, under the Cooperative department of the State government, is on the verge of closure due to political interference and mismagement by the previous Congress government in the State.

Established in 1955, ASCARD Bank has 28 branches across the State, but only 11 branches are functiol. The bank has 190 employees presently. The origil me of the bank was Central Land Mortgage Bank which was set up by the State Cooperative department in 1955. In 1990, its me was changed to ASCARD Bank. The bank was basically established to provide loans with cheaper interest rates to farmers and other smaller groups for the overall development of rural areas in the State. The funding of the bank is done by BARD.  

Many employees of the bank have already retired from service without receiving salaries and provident fund (PF). This year itself, four retired employees died without any treatment due to lack of money. As for serving ASCARD Bank employees, it is an endless ordeal of severe economic hardship.

Sources said the mismagement of the bank is mostly related to political interference by a section of Congress leaders, who were members of the bank’s board of directors from 1991 to 1996. Their excessive interferences had forced the bank magement to sanction loans to some favored businessmen in the State, instead of farmers and other margilized groups. Major portion of loans given by the bank to such businessmen were never repaid. Later, the ASCARD Bank had to take recourse to filing ‘bakijai’ cases against the defaulters.

The CBI has been given the responsibility to probe into the alleged fincial irregularities by the bank magement.

In the last 15 years of the previous Congress government, the bank authorities took up its various problems with the government, but no measures were undertaken by Dispur. The 190 staff working for the bank have not been paid their salaries since May 2000. Almost Rs 72 crore is needed for payment of their salaries and arrears.

The ASCARD Bank Employees Union recently took up the issue of their plight with Prime Minister rendra Modi and urged him to take steps for its revival. The union members also met Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal and apprised him of their condition.

Talking to The Sentinel, the Union’s president Durgeswar Das and general secretary Jugal Bhuyan said, “We have become really disappointed. No steps were taken by the previous Congress government for solution to our problems and revive the conditions of the bank, which is now dying. Had the previous government provided us fincial assistance, our problems could have been solved to a great extent. We now hope that the present BJP-le government in the State will take some initiatives in this regard.”