Gujarat To Probe Role Of Co-Operative Registrar In Mmcb Scam

The state co-operative department has taken up the process of initiating a probe into the extent of involvement of its the then Co-operative Registrar in the Rs 1050 crore Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB) scam.

This decision was taken on Tuesday morning after the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee indicted the role of state government official in the MMCB scam along with a senior official of Reserve Bank of India and an auditor of MMCB.

The government has also decided to scrutinise some documents in the Co-operative Registrar's office pertaining to the 1998-99 period to find out whether the then incumbent can be accused of negligent attitude towards his duty or 'if there was any intentional error and omission' on his part.

State co-operative minister Vadibhai Patel said: "We are already on the process of identifying the person who was occupying the chair of State Co-operative Registrar during that period and are checking up the extent of his involvement in the MMCB case."

"Though it was a draft report from the JPC, we have already taken note of its findings and a probe is being initiated to find out why enough measures were not taken by the Registrar even after he was informed about the irregularities in MMCB," said the minister.

"We can assure the people that as already the JPC report came heavily upon our department, we are going to initiate action against anyone found guilty in the scam from the state government but we also have to check before taking any such action, so that it is not repeated in future," said Patel.

The JPC draft report has revealed that during 1998-99, when irregularities were galore in MMCB, the then Co-operative Registrar, though being aware of the happening in the bank, did not initiate any action and did not care to inform his counterparts and senior RBI officials.

Similar charges have also been levelled against the then assistant general manager of RBI, Ahmedabad, who also has been indicted for 'dereliction of duty,' in the JPC report.

When contacted in the RBI's Mumbai office, Kalpana Kilawala (general manager) and official spokesperson said: "The report is not referred to us as yet for action. This is a draft report and once tabled in the Parliament, it will definitely come to us and we will do the needful."