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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Banker and pradhan ‘rob’ BPL man

Banker and pradhan ‘rob’ BPL man

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published Published on Dec 12, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 12, 2010

A day labourer has complained to court that a panchayat pradhan in cahoots with a bank manager has thrust a loan of Rs 30,000 on him for which he had never applied, the allegation exposing how beneficiaries of village schemes are left at the mercy of influential rural leaders.

Additional chief judicial magistrate Manoj Rai, after criticising the police role in the investigation, asked the Islampur subdivisional officer yesterday to inquire into the complaint filed by Mohammad Baisago, a BPL card holder.

Baisago had approached the court in September after repeated appeals to police for justice went unheeded. The pradhan had apparently used Baisago’s voter I-card and two passport-size photos, which he had submitted while applying for funds under the Indira Awas Yojna, in the scam.

The SDO has been asked by the court to present his report on December 27.

Sources in the court said Baisago had brought serious charges against the Congress pradhan of Goalpokhar’s Pokhria gram panchayat, Hemlal Hembram, and the manager of the Panjipara branch of the State Bank of India, Saikat Kumar.

The labourer, who earns Rs 80-100 a day doing odd jobs whenever he gets them, has alleged that without his knowledge an account was opened in his name at the bank and Rs 30,000 was deposited in it as agricultural loan. Only when he received a notice from the bank on June 26 this year — asking him why he was not re-paying the loan after withdrawing Rs 25,000 from the account on October 24 last year — did Baisago realise that he had an account.

“I went to the bank and was told Rs 25,000 had been withdrawn by me. I was startled and when I contacted the bank manager, he refused to listen to me. However, a bank employee sympathetic to my plight, told me that the account had my photograph and that the loan had been approved on the recommendation of the panchayat pradhan. The employee had also told me that everything would be clear if I contacted the pradhan,” Baisago said in his complaint to the court.

In the case of agricultural loans, documents related to the farmland also had to be deposited. “But banks often waive this part of the process on the recommendation of the pradhans,” said a villager.

The day labourer, who has to support a family of five, then remembered that Hembram had taken his photographs and his voter identity card when he had approached the panchayat for funds under the Indira Awas Yojna last year.

The voter card had been returned but not the photographs.

When Baisago confronted the pradhan, he admitted to opening the account and told him that the bank manager had also taken some of the money.

“In a salisi held in August in the village, the pradhan offered to repay Rs 15,000 to the bank. However, he did not keep his promise and I contacted the Goalpokhar police station but they refused to record my complaint and it was after that I turned to court for justice,” said Baisago.

Sources in the court said the ACJM had ordered the police to investigate the allegations and submit a report. However, when the cops failed saying the manager has been transferred to the SBI in Malda’s Gajole, an angry ACJM ordered the SDO to personally investigate the case.

When contacted on his cellphone, bank manager Kumar said: “I have been falsely implicated in this case, I am not involved in any way.”

Hembram said there had been a misunderstanding. “The matter had been settled but later on I do not know how the court became involved. There is a political conspiracy behind all this,” the pradhan said.


The Telegraph, 13 December, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101213/jsp/siliguri/story_13292184.jsp


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