Editor,
A loan turns bad if the interest or instalment remains unpaid for a period of more than 90 days after the due date. I think bad loan is an appropriate term to describe it rather than the oft-repeated terminology “non-performing asset” (NPA). Be that as it may, such lost assets of Indian banks have crossed a whopping Rs. 87,300 crore in 2017-18 fiscal ~ topped by scam-tainted Punjab National Bank which is reeling under more than Rs. 14,000 crore scam allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi and associates. Just one bank, PNB has suffered a net loss of 12,283 crore last fiscal.
Unfortunately, while we let Vijay Mallyas and Nirav Modis go abroad after they had stolen a huge amount of tax payers money. Poor persons have been targeted for compensating the loot of those big thieves. It can easily be understood that it is mainly the poor persons who are made to pay through the nose in the name of penalty for keeping less than what a bank has marked as minimum balance. It is mainly economic constraints that makes people unable to keep minimum balance in their bank accounts. Huge amount of money has been sucked in from the purse of the poor people. It is reported that our banks have collected an astronomical Rs. 5,000 crore from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance in their accounts in 2017 – 18. This consists mostly of, so to speak, the blood of the poor people.
It is the sheer lack of balance on the part of the administration which adopted a policy of letting Mallyas go abroad and penalizing the masses for the loss. Ironically, things have been going in such a way that it makes us believe that money power forces the masses to pay for the misdeeds of some macro defaulters. The policy of imposing penalty for keeping less than some thousands in a bank account is, as it were, an act of imposing double punishment. We are made to pay for the loss of our own public money! ,
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Resolve the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute
Editor,
The Shillong Times and other media have again highlighted the skirmishes taking place in Meghalaya-Assam borders especially in Jaintia Hills (Block-I), Ri Bhoi (Block-II) and West Khasi Hills sectors. Recently a Khasi from Khlieh Umwang area of Ri Bhoi bordering Assam was slaughtered by a person from the other side. Again just recently Assam made incursions into Malangkona (Huapara) and the nearby villages under West Khasi Hills District claiming that the area belongs to Assam. It was reported that the Assam police conducted combing operations to nab villagers who resisted the area expansion by the Assam Police. Similar things happened in many villages in the Block-I sector. Again, in 2010 four Khasis were shot dead by Assam Police at Langpih village which happened on market day at the village. Two rounds of talks between the government of Assam and Meghalaya took place following the shooting incident but nothing came of the talks to settle the boundaries between the two states. These skirmishes and border clashes will keep recurring from time to time if the boundaries between Meghalaya and Assam are not finally and clearly demarcated once and for all by both states. The people of Meghalaya demand that the present Government under MDA should immediately sit with its counterpart to settle the boundary dispute once and for all in all disputed sectors of the borders between Meghalaya and Assam.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Via email
Nagerbazar Blast- a terrorist trial run?
Editor,
A bomb explosion took place in the congested Kajipara area of bustling Nagerbazar under South Dum Dum Municipality at about 9 a.m. on Tuesday last outside a fruit shop on the ground floor of a five storied building resulting in the death of a nine year old boy and serious injury to ten other people. As reported by the media, Chairman of SDD Municipality, who is perhaps not a recognized technocrat or explosives expert, termed the blast as a socket bomb explosion. The Commissioner, Barrackpore Police Commissionerate also termed the explosion as a “low intensity socket bomb blast”. The blast that took place in a most peaceful area of Kolkata is therefore a serious matter of concern for public security and safety on the eve of the greatest national festivity – the “Durga Puja”.
According to CID sleuths as reported in the media, the JMB (Jamtul Mujahideen) of Bangladesh are experts in Socket Bomb Explosion and the districts of Murshidabad & Birbhum have been earmarked as the labour rooms for delivery of socket bombs. For quite some time the state of West Bengal has become a safe haven for terrorists, aided by Pakistan’s ISI Pakistan which have infiltrated into the state through Nepal and Bangladesh routes. In those districts NIA has established the presence of JMB & Ansarullah team of Bangla during the course of investigation after Khagragarh Blast. It is high time to investigate, identify and unravel the existence of secret hide-outs of terrorist organizations in a populated area of mixed ethnic groups like Dum Dum. There is also a possibility that unidentified terrorist organizations/groups are engaged in the preparation of “Sleeper- Cells” in the entire state of West Bengal. The state government may, therefore, resort to an in-depth investigation on top priority basis by deployment of the State Police & CID and also taking necessary help from the Union Home Ministry as well for revealing the truth of the bomb blast of Kajipara and to bring the facts to the public domain.
As per report of a section of the CID investigators, as published in the newspapers, immediately after the explosion the site of blast witnessed continued visits and presence of heavy-weight leaders and ministers of the ruling party. It is however, not understood as to why there was a hurry on the part of Police administration and municipality administration of SDD, to term that the blast was a socket bomb blast, to wash the site with water even before the arrival of Forensic Experts for collection of evidence at the site and adjacent areas surrounding the site of the blast. Why there was an unusual delay in sending the Forensic experts to the site of explosion is also inexplicable.
Are we heading/destined for a bigger blast, after a trial run in Kajipara, which aims at causing a mass casualty during the impending “Durga Puja Festival”?
Yours etc.,
Samares Bandyopadhyay
Advocate, Kolkata High Court