Kundapur: PLD Bank accused of looting debt waiver money through forgery

Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur

Kundapur, Sep 28: Primary Land Development (PLD) Bank in Kundapur has been accused by its own members of looting money through forgery under the government's debt waiver scheme for farmers.

On Thursday September 26, bank members called a press meet and alleged that unethical practices have been taking place in the bank. The money was looted by the bank officials carefully without the notice of the bank management, they said.

Bank members said that the image of the bank had taken a beating with the officials pocketing several lacs from the funds granted by the state and central governments for the benefit of farmers.

"The main person responsible for these activities is the then bank manager Narayan Billawa. The auditors too deliberately overlooked the forgery," alleged the members, adding, "It looks like the officials have looted Rs 6,95,000 but the exact details will be known only after investigation."

Resly Rebello Senapur said, "The bank after obtaining loan for dairy farming has done injustice by not paying the insurance amount. The bank which is supposed to give loans to people who have 5 cents of land, has not given loans to many deserving farmers, he alleged. Sudhakar Shetty Yedthady, Babu Balkur, Manjunath Shetty among others were present.

On Friday September 27, bank president Dinakar Shetty along with vice-president Kenchanur Somashekar Shetty, director Prakash T Mendon, Malyadi Shivaram Shetty and bank manager Seetharam Shetty called a press meet and said that unethical practices were not taking place in the bank, and that it was just a matter of financial anomaly.

They however admitted that former bank officials had indulged in forgery. "A new manager has been appointed and the former bank manager Narayan Billawa has agreed to pay a sum of Rs 6 lac-odd. Investigation is on and the information has been passed on to higher officials, they added.