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Banks mulling legal steps against govt employees

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 27 � Government employees who have defaulted in repayment of loan could be in for fresh trouble as banks are contemplating legal action against them.

Such is the existing trend that many of the Government employees do not even feel the necessity of responding to the orders passed by the Bakijai Court, a trend seen as detrimental to the functioning of the financial institutions.

In the Cooperative City Bank Limited, Guwahati branch itself, over hundred cases of defaulting payments are pending, most being Government employees.

As a result, more and more cases of loan defaults are being registered with the Bakijai Court, Guwahati.

In one such recent case, Dr Ramchandra Das, Key Village Officer, Department of Animal Husbandry, who had availed a housing loan of Rs 1 lakh in 2006 from the Cooperative City Bank Limited, is reportedly untraceable.

�Several notices were served by the Bakijai Court to the defaulters and also the director, Institute of Farm Management, Rani, who is also the drawing and disbursing officer but to no avail. At present, we are clueless about his whereabouts,� sources stated.

Dr Das is due to pay Rs 97,992(approx) to the bank, of which Rs 12,000(approx) was recovered by selling some of his moveable properties in public auction.

Das, according to sources, is neither traceable at his office not at his residence. The Bakijai Court had also passed an order under Rule 20 framed under Bengal Public Deposit Recover Act, 1913 asking the authority concerned to attach Rs 7,000 per month from the defaulter�s salary but the order too was not adhered to.

�The defaulters do not seem to amend their behaviour and the bad news for them is that they will have to face the music in court and even have to go to jail. We at present has over 100 pending cases, including the one of Dr Das,� said MN Kalita, managing director, Cooperative City Bank Limited.

Kalita was of the opinion that if the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) adhere to the Assam Cooperative Societies Act, 1949, which authorizes them to deduct the dues from the salary of the loanee, the scenario would not have been

this bad.

�Even the State Finance department had issued a circular in this regard but it fell on deaf ears,� Kalita rued.

Another official, when asked, said, �A huge amount of loan is to be recovered from the Government employees and we are planning to take evasive action against them.�

The Bakijai Court, besides recovering a substantial sum of money in the span of last few months, has arrested many such defaulters.

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