The West Bengal government has dissolved the board of Bhatpara Naihati Cooperative Bank that had Trinamool Congress-MLA-turned-BJP-candidate Arjun Singh as its chairman. The government has put the 93-year-old organisation under an administrator.
Arjun Singh is also about to face a no-confidence motion at Bhatpara municipality, where he is the chairman too.
Singh, who has been nominated as a candidate from the high-profile Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency, has alleged that his removal from the bank is a result of vendetta politics by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
District TMC president and food and supplies minister Jyoti Priya Mallick argued that the government took the step after the members of the board of the bank expressed their lack of confidence in Singh. The state cooperation department took the step on March 20, said Mallick.
On March 14, Singh, who won four consecutive elections for Bengal’s ruling party from Bhatpara assembly constituency, switched to the BJP allegedly after he was denied a ticket from Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency by party boss Mamata Banerjee.
The bank that was set up in 1926 has four branches and about 1.07 lakh depositors in the industrial areas of Bhatpara, Naihati, Shyamnagar areas of North 24 Parganas district adjacent to Kolkata.
{{/usCountry}}The bank that was set up in 1926 has four branches and about 1.07 lakh depositors in the industrial areas of Bhatpara, Naihati, Shyamnagar areas of North 24 Parganas district adjacent to Kolkata.
{{/usCountry}}Cooperative banks are run according to guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India but are under the administrative control of the state government.
“It is a measure that is similar to what the Left government used to take towards its end. Let’s see whether it (the dissolution of the board) is upheld by the courts,” said Arjun Singh.
Mallick said the step was taken this week after the members of the board approached the state cooperation department. There are 16 members in the board of the bank including Singh.
The councillors of Bhatpara municipality have also decided to move a no confidence motion to oust Singh, who is also the civic body chairman.The civic body has 35 seats of which 34 were by the TMC.
On March 18, urban development minister Firhad Hakim and Mallick convened a meeting of the councillors of the civic body. The meeting was attended by 21 councillors headed by vice-chairman Somnath Talukdar.
After that meeting, while Talukdar had said they would win, Singh claimed he would retain his position in the civic body since the councillors would vote with secret ballots.
Mamata Banerjee has fielded incumbent Dinesh Trivedi from the Barrackpore constituency.