BALASORE: The Balasore Co-operative Urban Bank (BCUB) has purchased a plot of land for its official building twice and that too at different rates. An investigation revealed that the bank had purchased about 18.2 decimal land (plot no. 1185) in Jadapur mouza in Balasore town from one Surendra Narayan Choudhury on June 28, 2010 at a cost of Rs 45 lakh.Again the same piece of land was purchased from one Radha Pankaj Das on July 7 last year at a cost of Rs 49 lakh. According to the land records available with this paper, the land has been purchased for Rs 1,00,58,414 which includes the stamp duty.Sources said Das was the real owner of the land when the transaction was made. While depositors of the bank alleged that the land was purchased once and the officials involved in it embezzled the money in the second transaction, bank secretary Prasanta Kumar Das clarified that the land had two ownerships and hence, two land records were made. The bank which was established in 1945 has deposits of Rs 34,53,16,000 from 6,028 depositors and Rs 13,60,06,026 has been disbursed as loans. The depositors also accused the bank management of large-scale irregularities in purchase of land, disbursement of loans to their relatives in violation of the co-operative rules and regulations, increasing salary and appointment of employees without administrative approval.A depositor Bhagabat Sahu said the bank had illegally hiked the salary of its staff and provided them Rs 9.86 lakh as arrears without the approval of the registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS). This apart, it has appointed six persons without administrative approval and disbursed Rs 24.50 lakh as loan, including some amount without any mortgage to a few relatives of board of directors violating the RBI guidelines. A special audit conducted following the allegations has revealed huge irregularities done by the present management and accordingly, the RCS has been directed to recover Rs 1.55 crore from the bank president, the secretary and 12 board of directors. “One month surcharge notice also has been issued to them,” said Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies Manoranjan Nayak. The bank had only Rs 13 lakh as its building fund. It is alleged that the management has purchased the land worth more than Rs 1 crore by using the deposits. The depositors, meanwhile, have demanded a Vigilance probe into the allegations.The secretary, however, said they had purchased the land from the bank’s fund of Rs 2 crore and have not violated any norms.“No fresh appointment has been made. Some people have been taken on daily wage basis and as per RBI guideline no relative has been disbursed loan since 2003,” he added.
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