Date:18/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/18/stories/2004101813240500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Call for action against Prudential defaulters

By V.N. Harinath

HYDERABAD, OCT. 17. The two lakh depositors of Prudential Cooperative Urban Bank Ltd whose savings have been locked up for the last 19 months are sore with the Government for its `inaction' with regard their demands, despite receiving 42 memoranda.

Officials of the Cooperation Department and management are yet to take stringent action against 22 major defaulters, including four Congress MLAs, who owe Rs. 204.55 crores of the outstanding Rs. 394 crores, although there are legal provisions to ensure this.

This has contributed to the present crisis in the bank.

Promises not kept

The depositors' association released the names of big borrowers at a meeting here on October 10. Speaking to The Hindu K. Srinivasulu, president of the association, has criticised the Government, which claims to work for the State's all-round progress and doing justice to the depositors, for not honouring its promises, including those by the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, and the Chief Secretary, Mohan Kanda.

Court approached

As a last resort, the association has approached the AP High Court, with a writ of mandamus, which is likely to come up for hearing after the Dasara vacation.

He asked why the Government had not taken action against the bank management for failing to recover hundreds of crores from big borrowers and suspected the hand of the Cooperative Registrar in the muddle. He alleged that the Government seemed to be protecting big borrowers. He demanded immediate steps to invoke the Securitisation Act against them.

Names revealed

The association, which is hoping to meet the Chief Minister along with an all-party delegation shortly, revealed the names of the big borrowers, with the amounts in crores due from them. Among them are A.S. Chowdhary (Navbharat Enterprises) 44.14; Rajeev Reddy (Country Club) 34.54; Jupally Krishna Rao, MLA, 20.14; Ramana Reddy (Kakatiya Industries) 16.12; Zulfiqar Ali (Atlas Builders, Odeon Theatre) 12.9; Narne Prabhakar 12.23 and Vittal Agarwal 12.03.