Nafed seems to have wriggled out of a legal impasse it had got into, in the wake of govt deciding to offer bail-out package to help the once pride of cooperative be back on rails. The govt move to offer financial support to Nafed was being opposed by Law Ministry on the ground of certain Acts of MSCS 2002, sources informed.
Citing Section 61 and Section 67 of MSCS Act 2002 Law Ministry has opposed the govt move to bailout Nafed from its tattered financial situation. Nafed leaders as well as officials held a series of meeting with union ministers including Arun Jaitley, Radha Mohan Singh and Ravi Shankar.
Later, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is believed to have talked to Law Minister Ravi Shankar and sought his help in resolving the legal logjam. The latter is said to have referred the case to the Solicitor General who has opined in favour of bailout.
In his opinion, Solicitor General has said that according to Section 61(G) Nafed could be allowed to avail the bailout. The crucial opinion has paved the way for an uninterrupted financial assistance to Nafed, said one of the Board Members of Nafed on condition of anonymity.
“The logjam has ended and now the only delay is procedural” said the Board member.
Readers would recall that the govt had decided to give an annual grant of Rs 30 crore for a period of 5 years to the Nafed to meet its financial obligations including salaries of employees and administrative expenses.
The govt had also offered to stand as guarantor of Nafed before the lending banks who had moved Debt Recovery Tribunal for recovery of their outstanding dues of around Rs 1700 crores. On the occasion of launch of Nafed’s mob app even its lender banks were invited at the CSOI in Delhi to have a feel of the confidence Nafed has begun to enjoy on the merit of its hard works in the Ministry.
