The agri cooperative NAFED’s uncertainty continues as the central government and the agri-cooperative Board refuge to budge from their respective positions.
Indian Cooperative.com has gathered that the govt officials approached Nafed with a package deal and wanted Nafed Chairman Bijendra Singh’s resignation as a part of the deal.
The Chairman Mr Singh is said to have had confabulations with the board members on the offer. The consensus that emerged from the meeting was in favour of accepting the offer on condition that transfer of fund should precede resignation. But the Ministry officials rejected the idea and insisted on Mr Singh’s resignation as a pre-condition.
Talking to Indiancooperative.com Bijender Singh Chairman of Nafed rubbished the news and said that no ministry officials ever contacted us or demanded resignation. “It is baseless as no offer of the revival package or the question of my resignation ever cropped up”, he added.
“We are demanding only Rs 600-700 crores for the future of Nafed and if the government agrees to this amount, not only me the entire board would resign”, he added. Only a year and an half of my tenure remains and I would not mind quitting if that brings Nafed back on track, he said.
The case of recovery of dues, meanwhile is progressing at a snail’s pace with the matter in appeal before the Additional Secretary Shri G C Pati in the Ministry of Agriculture. The next date of hearing is February 20th.
If the Additional Secretary Mr Pati disposes the matter and rules against the accused they would have the option to go for appeal in the High Court. The court of the Central Registrar, according to legal experts, has power equivalent to a trial court. The matter thus could go to the high court.
Many persons feel that the gap between what Nafed needs as a revival package and the amount they have to get from the people issued recovery orders, is not big. Nafed could even do without a bailout if the recoveries are made, they argue.
The person who tops the list of dues is Homi Rajvansh who owes Rs 110 crore followed by Meena Singh and Vishal Singh,the wife and son of late Ajit Singh respectively. They owe Rs 64.09 crore each.
Third is Alok Ranjan, an IAS officer then MD owes Rs 19.38 crore.
Majority of people who were in the business committee including the present Chairman Bijender Singh owe Rs 16.02 crore.
Sanjay Singh and ML Danga are the lucky ones with dues less than Rs 2 core.
But the recovery of dues is not easy, the legal course being notorious for delay and deferment in India. Once the matter reaches the High Court, the respondents may be asked by the court to deposit a part of money as ordered by the recovery notices prior to a hearing in the matter.