Basko Besra resigns from Coop Bank Board of Directors

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Sept 3: Already mired by controversy and charges of corruption, the Board of Directors of Jharkhand State Cooperative Bank is sailing over volatile waters. LAMPS Gamharia representative in the Board, Basko Besra handed over his resignation thereby driving the last nail in the coffin of the Bank�s state of affairs.

Basko Besra said that he was fed up with accusations of irregularities and corruption prevailing in the Board of Directors and thus he tendered his resignation. This follows the resignation of two others Kaushalya Kujur and Sunaina Pathak. The Registrar of Cooperatives had earlier rejected the qualifications of Sudhir Kumar as member of the Board. Incidentally, Sudhir Kumar was the cook employed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jharkhand State Cooperative Bank.

NABARD in its inspection report for the period 2018-�19 had disqualified Nagina Singh, Raghunath Yadav and Sudhir Kumar from the Bank�s Board of Directors and proclaimed them as defaulters. The Board provisioned to have 19 Directors, had elected only nine Directors. Among them three have resigned and three have been declared defaulters and thus automatically, the Board stood dissolved for all practical purposes.

In his resignation letter Basko Besra accused the bank Board�s Chairman Abhaykant Prasad of manipulating the Board of Directors� decisions to suit his own ends. Basko further accused that Prasad used to pick and choose Executives as per his own whims rsulting in huge losses to the Bank. He said the Bank�s deposits had dipped from Rs 2,400 crore to almost half during his tenure as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jharkhand State Cooperative Bank.

Basko Besra stated that Abhaykant Prasad shielded corrupt officials and dismissed contract staff members to protect his own interests. He mentioned that on August 27, a letter had been sent to the Registrar of Cooperatives in which the prevailing irregularities, corruption and defaulting Directors were given note of including the NABARD report to substantiate the accusations.

Basko Besra stated that he had sent his resignation to the Chairman of the Jharkhand State Cooperative Bank. �The Bank�s capital deposit has fallen from Rs 24 crore to half. As a result 30 contract staff members had been removed. He has not taken any action against accused staff members during his tenure. Under such circumstances, I do not want to be a part of the Board,� Besra said and added that he had mentioned these in his resignation letter.