Coop bank cracks whip on ‘wilful’ defaulters, 1 arrested

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, May 10

The Punjab Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank (PADB) authorities on Thursday got a “wilful” and influential defaulter arrested.

Accused Lachman Singh of Gullari village in the district, who owns 26 acres of land, had taken a loan of Rs 10.8 lakh in 2012. He, however, did not pay even a single instalment. He now owes a total of Rs 17.7 lakh to the bank. Besides Lachman, his family members also owe Rs 17.5 lakh to the PADB.

“This is our first arrest of current financial year. The family owes a total of Rs 35.2 lakh. With the support of Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, we are now determined to recover money from all defaulters,” Rajnish Bansal, regional officer, told The Tribune.

Officers say more arrests from top 50 defaulters are also likely to be made if they fail to deposit their dues. In Patiala division, farmers owe Rs 578.43 crore to the PADB.

Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar, Mohali and Ludhiana districts fall under the Patiala division. Sources say of the total Rs 578.43 crore, Rs 384.93 crore is overdue towards 22,364 defaulters of previous years, while the remaining Rs 193.5 crore is of the current rabbi season due towards 18,022 defaulters.

“We procured the arrest warrant from the office of Assistant Registrar, Sunam, and arrested Lachman. “We produced him in the court of Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, and sent him to Sangrur Jail for nine days. If he fails to deposit the money in nine days, we will produce him in the court of SDM concerned and take legal action against him,” said Bansal.

Bank officials say they have formed teams of officers and hired some dholis. The teams will be visiting the houses of wilful defaulters with dholis and pressure them to repay their debt.

Dharminder Pashore, Lehragaga block president of BKU Ugraha, said: “We are not against the arrest of wilful and influential defaulters. But we will not allow harassment of any poor farmer.”

Debtors to face the music: Officials

• Bank officials say more arrests from top 50 defaulters are also likely to be made if they fail to deposit their dues.
• Officials say they have formed teams of officers and hired some dholis. The teams will be visiting the houses of wilful defaulters with dholis and pressure them to repay their debt.

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