SATARA, MAY 22: Apprehensions are rife about safety of deposits among a group of depositors of the Sanchayani Savings and Investments here in wake of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) objecting some of the fiscal activities of the Sanchayani and appointing a special officer to supervise its operations.
“Many like me are worried about our hard-earned money, with the Sanchayani officials here being rude and evasive on our fears,” said a distressed investor requesting anonymity for obvious reasons.
Knowledgeable sources close to Sanchayani admitted appointment of a special officer by RBI, besides Sanchayani being advised by the RBI not to accept new deposits. Sanchayani already has challenged both the RBI moves while the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has asked both RBI and Sanchayani to maintain a status quo till May 31, source said.
The RBI appointing a special officer to monitor the Sanchayani’s operations since the company’s balance sheet as on December 31, 1998 has indicated accumulated loss ofRs 128.74 crore while its liabilities on that day were to the tune of Rs 657.76 crore, according to the group of investors here. They were quoting from a letter written by RBI’s Culcutta-based regional director for department of non-banking supervision K K Chaudhuri to former chief officer of the Andhra Bank V P Taneja who has been appointed as the special officer by the RBI.
“We are still undecided about our future course of action,” the worried investors said adding that they would soon contemplate their action. They would also get in touch with the decision makers at Sanchayani, they added.According to Choudhuri’s letter, a copy of which was made available to this paper by the anxious Satara investors, the RBI has made several stipulations to the Sanchayani directors considering the lack of safety of the investment of the depositors. Sanchayani refraining immediately from accepting fresh deposits has been one of these stipulations, against which the Sanchayani has approached the High Court.
The RBIfurther has suggested Sanchayani to divest its real estate and utilise the sales proceedings along with the deposits being accepted by the Sanchayani under the existing contracts to invest into approved securities.The Sanchayani, meanwhile, in the writ petition filed before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on April 6 this year has branded the RBI moves as unnecessary harassment, making a point that the appointment of the special officer was arbitrary and without any authority of law. There has been not a single incident since Sanchayani was established in 1978, that depositors were not paid the maturity value of the deposits, it added.