Members yet to take oath, KCC Bank sans board of directors

Elections concluded on Sept 30

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— Sources said that lobbying for the post of chairman of the bank was delaying the nomination of three members to the board.

— Oath could not be taken by elected members as the state government has not nominated three members of the board. The KCC bank has 16 elected members and three nominated members.

— The BJP won 12 out of 16 posts of directors in recent elections.

— The failure of the bank to appoint board of directors was hitting its working of the bank, one of the biggest cooperative banks of the state.

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, October 29

The Kangra Central Cooperative (KCC) Bank is without its board of directors for the past two months. Despite the fact that new members of the KCC bank were elected on September 30, they have not been able to take oath.

Sources here said that oath could not be taken as the state government has not nominated three members of the board. The KCC bank has 16 elected members and three nominated members.

The present BJP government had dismissed the previous board of KCC bank in 2018 and had nominated three members of the board. A close confident of former CM Shanta Kumar, Rajiv Bharadwaj was made the chairman of the bank.

The sources here said that lobbying by various quarters for capturing the post of chairman of the KCC bank was delaying the nomination of three members to the board. It was being expected that Rajiv Bharadwaj would be re-nominated to bank board and made chairman of the bank.

However, certain newly elected members of the board allegedly egged on by some powerful people in the government are now demanding that the new chairman of the bank should appointed from among the elected members only. The BJP has won 12 out of 16 posts of directors in recently concluded elections. However, in case a group of elected members become adamant that the chairman be made from among the elected members it might make reappointment of Rajiv Bharadwaj a tricky issue for the government.

Earlier only the elected members used to become chairman of the bank. However, during the stint of the last Congress government Jagdish Sapiya, a nominated member, was made the chairman.

The failure of the bank to appoint board of directors in the bank was hitting its working of KCC bank, one of the biggest cooperative banks of the state. The major loans in the bank can only be sanctioned by committee set up by the board of directors. The sources here said that the bank officials were dithering in sanctioning major loans in the absence of permanent board of directors.

Rajiv Bharadwaj, former chairman of the bank, when contacted, said that the government would soon appoint the nominated members and after that board of directors would take oath.