SRINAGAR: Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Dr Asgar Samoon has alleged that the J&K Bank, in which government has 53.17% stake, distributed loans to the ‘blue-eyed boys’ of politicians despite knowing that they would never be returned and the accounts would become non-performing assets, Economic Times reported on Friday.
J&K Bank, considered to be the state’s premier financial institution, according to Dr Samoon, lacked vision for investment and representatives from the business community and young entrepreneurs should be part of its policymaking body.
The senior-most bureaucrat from the Kashmir Valley alleged that bank spends corporate social responsibility money ‘to make politicians happy.’
“We will write to J&K bank and can call them for discussion as well,” Economic Times reported Dr Samoon as having said.
He was speaking at the launch ceremony of an e-commerce portal that sells GI certified pashmina and fashion wear.
As per the annual report of J&K Bank, gross NPAs have risen from around Rs 783 crore in 2014 to Rs 2,764 crore in 2015. In same financial year, 2014-15, out of Rs 29.87 crore for CSR, only 13.75 crore was spent. “Here subsidies are given to blue-eyed people and then they are rescued by declaring the account as NPA, Dr. Samoon said.
According to Samoon, J&K Bank should have been able to create incubation centres for budding entrepreneurs to inspire and instill confidence among the next generation of businessmen. “But J&K Bank is lagging behind.” He lashed out at the government saying, there was a lot of ‘deadwood’ in government departments, which has not been removed for some years now.
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