Politicians default on loans

NASHIK, April 30: Local politicians and their family members in Nashik top the list of 201 defaulters, who are yet to repay loans to the tu...

NASHIK, April 30: Local politicians and their family members in Nashik top the list of 201 defaulters, who are yet to repay loans to the tune of Rs 5.10 crore to the Nashik District Central Co-operative Bank.

According to a list of defaulters drawn up by the bank on March 15, the major defaulters include former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Yadavrao Bamble, family members of former Congress minister Vinayakrao Patil, former chairman of the bank Shankarrao Mukajilpar and a family member of former Nandgaon MLA Kanhaiyyalal Nahar. Besides, several members of the bank have borrowed money from the bank to buy a tractor and later sold it off, without repaying the loan. Similarly some borrowed money to develop vineyards, but either sold off their land or could not fulfill their promise.

Six family members of former Congress minister Vinayakrao Patil together have defaulted in the repayment loans to the tune of Rs 35.30 lakh. The loans were taken for horticulture.

Bank officials have expressed their inability to take stern action fearing his wrath.

Former MLA from the tribal Igatpuri constituency, Yadvarao Bamble (who has gained a notoriety of sorts of switching parties as diverse as the Congress and the BJP in the past) and who is currently a Zilla Parishad member is yet to repay Rs 51,715 borrowed from the bank for purchasing a tractor.

Ghevarchand Lachhiram Nahar, related to former Nandgaon MLA Kanhaiyyalal Nahar owes Rs 90,552 to the bank. Family members of former chairman of the bank, Shankarrao Mukaji Igar, are yet to pay Rs 5.27 lakh to the bank. There are at least three persons who borrowed money for buying a tractor and later sold it off without repayment of the loan, the outstanding amount being Rs 3.33 lakh. No action has been initiated against the defaulters as they are influential persons. Incidentally, the bank plays a vital role in financing the agricultural sector and is controlled by Congressmen.

JUDGE TRANSFERRED: Additional sessions judge Subhash Deshmukh, who had invited the wrath of the Nashik Bar Association last week, was among the seven judges of the Nashik court routinely transferred elsewhere, on Monday.

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Deshmukh had found himself at the Centre of a controversy last week over the stay on the meeting of the standing committee of the Nashik Municipal Corporation. The Nashik Bar Association had passed a resolution on Friday last casting aspersions on his integrity, demanding his suspension and boycotting his court.

A Congress sponsored independent corporator, J T Shinde, (who was a contender for the chairmanship of the committee) had obtained an interim stay on the meeting of the panel on April 24, Shinde had contested his defeat at the elections to the committee held on April 17 on the basis of an invalid ballot paper.

Senior civil judge A P Ingale had stayed the panel’s meeting to be held on April 25, to elect its chairman.

However, some BJP-Sena corporators had approached Deshmukh at his residence on April 24 and obtained a stay on the injunction granted by judge Ingale.

Lightning deaths

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Lightning killed four persons in three different incidents as heavy unseasonal rains lashed Nashik on Tuesday night.

In Kolwadi near Naitale in Niphad block, lightning struck Mathurbai More (42) and a six-year-old girl Tara. In Chandwad taluk, a 12-year-old girl, Kamini Kashiram Gaikwad was killed at Vadner-Bhairav village. A farmer, Santu Krishna Jadhav (50) was also fatally struck by lightning near Sayyed-Pimpri village in Nashik taluk.