Appeals for prioritizing resolution for stressed, NPA accounts
Srinagar: The Federation of Chambers of Industries Kashmir (FCIK) has solicited the intervention of Chief Secretary Atal Duloo in “restraining” J&K Bank authorities from their “corrosive and draconian actions” against defaulting business community including MSMEs to restore and reinforce their trust and confidence.
In a statement, the FCIK condemned the decision of the bank authorities to allegedly engage third-party agents for the recovery of loans and attachment of property of business enterprises provided by them as collateral security against their loans. It cautioned of potential misunderstanding from the action and its negative impact on the industrialization programme.
In a letter to the Chief Secretary, FCIK said, “Owing to the distinct and peculiar situation which landed the business community in distress, a meaningful resolution to the issue of stressed and NPA accounts needed to be prioritized and arrived at through deliberations among the bank authorities, UT government and the stakeholders. Till such a time, the bank needed to be restrained from their actions against the defaulting units.”
The Chief Secretary was informed that the entrepreneurs of Kashmir were shocked this Wednesday when they witnessed one of the agents of J&K Bank travelling all along from Mohali Punjab and sealing an industrial unit M/s Pureweave Designs Private Limited at Rangreth industrial complex besides the office complex of enterprise at Nawpora, Srinagar on behalf of J&K Bank, the FCIK said, adding that the agent M/s GATS Reconstruction Company Mohali was now contemplating to take possession of other property of the entrepreneur including his residential house.
The Chamber has conveyed to the Chief Secretary that the action against the industrial unit had sent wrong signals and shivers across the business community in general and the industrial community in particular as it had given rise to a fresh and unnecessary debate regarding the dispossession of the business community of their assets. The entrepreneurs were in complete dilemma whether the bank had sought prior consent for such a draconian process from the UT government in the capacity of the majority shareholders of the bank, it said.
“Earlier, J&K Bank had taken symbolic possession of M/s Mehfooz Agro industries in industrial estate Lassipora in August this year merely within two months after turning their account as NPA. The bank had also thrown out a 96-year-old lady from her residential house merely after 6 months of turning his businessman son’s account into NPA. In the past two years, the bank had initiated repressive actions of intimidation and publicly defaming of entrepreneurs which were equally condemned by the people and business chambers,” the FCIK said.