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| First RTI, now Evidence Act, JKB says no to both | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 8: The latest 'resistance' to transparency and free flow of information by the J&K Bank Ltd has been its denial to furnish evidence documents to the State Vigilance Organization (VOK) which had to obtain a court direction asking the bank to furnish the evidence documents required by the VOK.
Its earlier refusal to furnish information under the RTI Act has now been followed by the bank's refusal to even furnish evidence documents to the investigating officers.
It is highly disturbing to note that the State's premier banking institution should act in a manner like this. The RTI act is a public benefit act and it is mandatory for public interest institutions, immaterial whether they are owned by the Government or not, to furnish information under the act so that the people have access to the records of institutions and organizations those directly affect their lives.
Under the Evidence Act, any police officer of and above the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police can seek information and obtain documents in evidence from any bank in the country after issuing a letter to the bank manager/incharge that the documents are required as evidence in a case being investigated by the officer.
After it refused to accept the authority of the RTI act, the J&K Bank Ltd has now decided not to comply with the provisions of the Evidence Act which is otherwise uniformly applicable all over the country.
It is shocking that when it comes to taking over the lead bank role or the benefit of interest subvention, debt relief or any other national policy that becomes due to public sector banks in the country, the J&K Bank Ltd does not claim to exist outside the purview of public sector banks and when it comes to furnishing information under the RTI act or under the Evidence Act the bank starts wearing its 'private uniform'.
It is neither in the larger interests of the bank nor its shareholders and customers to allow such a situation to continue any longer. The J&K Bank Ltd like any other big financial institution controlled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must behave in a more responsible, transparent and public friendly manner. The bank can no longer continue to run with the deer and at the same time hunt with the hound. It has to be either here or there.
If the same state of affairs continued the Government of India would have to step in and initiate steps for forcing the bank into complete transparency. There are many big fish who have been using the funds of the bank for furthering their business empires who would be exposed once the bank starts spilling out beans under the RTI act.
For the average depositor and the borrower the bank obviously has nothing to hide. The hide and seek begins only when it comes to people whose huge indebtedness to bank was compromised through negotiations passing on unbelievable financial favours.
Those who want to keep the bank away from the RTI act must not have forgotten the one-time settlement of a big real estate dealer in Srinagar? While the cost of his collateral had risen manifold and was more than sufficient to cover the bank's risk, the bank decided to go in for one-time settlement whereby it lost Rs 18 crores. These things obviously will have to be said once the RTI act is fully applicable to the bank. |
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