FCIK seeks CS’s intervention in restraining J&K Bank

Srinagar, Dec 14: The Federation of Chambers of Industries Kashmir (FCIK) has urgently called upon Chief Secretary Atal Duloo to intervene and put a check on what they describe as “corrosive and draconian actions” by Jammu and Kashmir Bank authorities.

FCIK in a statement, while condemning the decision of Bank authorities to engage third-party agents for recovery of loans and attachment of property of business enterprises provided by them as collateral security against their loans, FCIK has cautioned of potential misunderstanding from the action and its negative impact on industrialisation programme.

In a letter to the Chief Secretary, FCIK has conveyed that “owing to the distinct and peculiar situation which landed the business community in distress, a meaningful resolution to the issue of stressed and NPA accounts needed to be prioritised and arrived at through deliberations amoung the bank authorities, UT government and the stakeholders. Till such a time, the bank needed to be restrained from their actions against the defaulting units.”

As per the statement, the Chief Secretary was informed that the entrepreneurs of Kashmir were shocked this Wednesday when they witnessed one of the agents of J&K Bank travelling all along from Mohali Punjab and sealing an industrial unit M/s Pureweave Designs Private Limited at Rangreth industrial complex beside the office complex of enterprise at Nawpora, Srinagar on behalf of J&K Bank. The agent M/s GATS Reconstruction Company Mohali was now contemplating taking possession of other properties of the entrepreneur including his residential house.

FCIK has conveyed to the Chief Secretary that the action against the industrial unit had sent wrong signals and shivers across the business community in general and the industrial community in particular as it had given rise to a fresh and unnecessary debate regarding the dispossession of the business community of their assets. The entrepreneurs were in complete dilemma whether the bank had sought prior consent for such a draconian process from the UT government in the capacity of the majority shareholders of the bank.

“Earlier, J&K Bank had taken symbolic possession of M/s Mehfooz Agro Industries in industrial estate Lassipora in August this year merely within two months after turning of their account as NPA. The bank had also thrown out a 96-year-old lady from her residential house merely after 6 months of turning his businessman son’s account into NPA. In the past two years, the bank had initiated repressive actions of intimidation and publicly defaming of entrepreneurs which were equally condemned by the people and business chambers,” the statement said.