Crisis management team appointed at NSEL

The exchange declares 10 more members as defaulters

Jignesh Shah, vice-chairman of NSEL, said on Wednesday that the exchange had appointed a crisis management team headed by the officer on special duty, P R Ramesh, to oversee the settlement process at the crisis-hit spot exchange.

Talking to reporters gathered at the time of a demonstration by NSEL investors opposite the NSEL and FT offices, Shah said the priority was to recover money from 24 planters and to cooperate with all investigating agencies.

Jignesh Shah’s message to investors was that money can be recovered from the defaulters only if all concerned work together. Meanwhile, NSEL declared 10 more members as defaulters after they failed to meet their payment commitment in the second payout schedule on Tuesday. These are LOIL Continental Food, LOIL Health Foods, Mohan India, Namdhari Food International, Namdhari Rice and General Mills, White Water Foods, Shree Radhey Trading Company, P D Agroprocessors, Swastik Overseas Corporation and Juggernaut Projects.

The exchange had earlier declared nine members as defaulters after they could not meet the first payment obligation on August 20. With this, 19 of 24 members have been declared defaulters. NSEL also announced the list of clients who took high positions on the exchange platform through their members. Clearly, members took positions on NSEL for themselves and also for large corporate clients. For example, the clients of N K Proteins include Tirupati Retail (India), the producer and retailer of Tirupati brand edible oil in Gujarat. Also Karnal-based P D Agroprocessors traded on behalf Dunar Foods Ltd, the producer of Dunar brand basmati rice.

Punjab Wool Traders, one of India’s largest wool importers and distributors, is the client of Ludhiana-based ARK Imports.

Juggernaut Project’s client, Southern Ispat and Energy Ltd, is one of the largest steel producers in south India.

The exchange is set to reveal client-wise details of the position on Thursday. The objective of revealing these names is to attract the attention of various authorities towards the involvement of large companies in the fiasco. With an additional collection of Rs 80 lakh, total pay-in moved up to Rs 104.78 crore against a total pay-out of Rs 349.44 crore, resulting in a shortfall of Rs 256.11 crore as on August 28.