The Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank fraud case involving an amount of Rs  50 crore has been  an infamously delayed case as it has experienced nothing but obstruction from the all the 11 accused.

The latter use the simple expedient of being absent from the court on the days of hearing by turns and thus are able to prevent the court from framing charges against them. The case has been pending for more than a decade.

All the accused including the Congress MLA from Saoner, Sunil Kedar have been mocking the judicial process with impunity. The court has issued warrants against them several times but to no avail.

Sources say the case would continue to drag on without any result as the court is neither splitting up the case nor cancelling bails of the accused. The case is stalemated and there is no progress, they add.

However, some lawyers are of the view that the case could be brought to its logical conclusion soon if the court so desired. The accused should immediately be arrested and charges framed against them, they remarked.

A cooperative bank in Nagpur in Maharashtra with a link with the BJP that had slid into a serious crisis incurring losses to the tune of more than fifty crore has suddenly bounced back.

The Shikshak Sahakari Bank has been claiming substantial profits for the last three years. The bank is without a doubt a going concern now.

It is remarkable that the bank has survived to tell the tale.  Its woes began in 2000s when it botched up lending and got a mass of flak from the RBI.

The bank had shrinkage of the depositors’ confidence and its very existence hung by a thread.

The bank solely catering to the teaching community was established in the 70s.

Fishcofed Chairman Prakash Lonare is a relaxed man today as court cases relating to his election have been dismissed by Nagpur High Court. There were arbitration cases also against him which have been adjudicated in his favour.

Lonare now intends to focus on the growth of fisheries cooperatives. Enthused by the success of insurance scheme for fisherman as reported earlier, Mr Lonare told Indiancooperative.com that he intends to usher in an era of cold-storage for keeping fish fresh.

There are some technologies in Japan which do not use electric power and yet keeps the storage working, he told. We are in talk with some private players who are active in this field and wish to achieve success on the lines of insurance, he confided.

Having storage in all the major fisheries areas would revolutionize the fisheries cooperative as we can dictate our price and make most of it for our members, Lonare said.

Prakash Lonare is proud of the fact that he belong to Zero mile pillar in Nagpur which is held as centre of India and which was represented by famous J C Berbe.  It was Mr Barbe who set up Nagpur district Fisheries Cooperative Federation after talking to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mr Barbe was Member of Parliament.

Referring to internecine infighting in cooperatives in general Mr Lonare said too Indiancooperative.com that positive thinking is important for ushering in a culture of consensus and cooperation. He is planning to invite scholars for lectures to instill the true spirit of cooperation among cooperators.

Maharashtra government is contemplating to introduce a new cooperative housing authority to regulate housing societies in the state, according to Cooperative Minister Harshavardhan Patil.

“A comprehensive housing authority needs to be introduced as there are over 75,000 housing societies in the state. Even in rural areas, housing societies are coming up in large numbers,” Patil said.

He said housing conventions would be organised before the members of housing federations in Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad to create awareness about the importance of such an authority.

The cooperative housing authority would be on the lines of cooperative credit society.

“By December this year the housing authority would be proposed. Before that four housing conventions would be organised in Mumbai,” he said.

Similarly, two housing conventions would be organised at Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad and one in Nagpur, he added.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar criticised Urban Cooperative Banks on Saturday for giving loans to the relatives of their directors. He also said that it was high time the bank directors gain proper knowledge about the working of the banks.

Many chairmen of the banks do not even know the meaning of NPAs (non performing assets or bad loans) and recovery system, he said. Speaking after inaugurating two-day ‘sahakar-parishad’ of the directors of state’s urban co-op banks here, he stressed the need to create trust among the people.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be the chief guest at the concluding session of the conference on Sunday.

The Maharashtra Rajya Sahkari Sangh Limited, an apex organisation of cooperative bodies will hold a convention at Aurangabad on October 3 for workers of the sector, according to its president Ashok Jagtap.

The convention will discuss effect of implementation of Vaidyanathan Committee report on district cooperative banks, income tax, service tax, non-performing assets, RBI policy on cooperative banks, NABARD policy and overall growth of cooperative movement in the state, Jagtap told reporters.