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POSTED ON 9TH MAY 2011NO RESPONSES

Pawar dismisses Congress charges over MSC Bank

Satara (Maharashtra), May 9 (IANS) For the third consecutive day Monday, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar blasted the Congress following the Reserve Bank of Indias decision to appoint administrators for the premier Maharashtra State CoOperative (MSC) Bank. Speaking to media-persons here Monday afternoon, Pawar dismissed the claims of state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre that the RBI action followed a report submitted by theNational Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The NABARD falls under the purview of Pawar, Thakre contended, implying that he (Pawar) had prior knowledge of the developments. Reacting sharply to the allegation, Pawar pointed out that NABARD was not under his jurisdiction. One must know which institution comes under whose jurisdiction. For this, knowledge of administration is necessary, he said, targeting Thakre. The Opposition parties also continued to clamour for the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was on the board of directors of MSC Bank, along with several other politicians. Eknath Khadse, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s leader of opposition in the state assembly, demanded that farmers have been betrayed and Ajit Pawar should take responsibility and quit from his post. Earlier, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray also demanded Ajit Pawars resignation. On his part, Ajit Pawar has alleged a Congress-sponsored political conspiracy hatched inNew Delhi leading to the dismissal of the banks board. The MSC Bank had 44 directors on its board of which 25 belonged to the NCP, 14 to Congress, two each to the BJP and the PWP and one from Shiv Sena. Prominent among them are Ajit Pawar, Diliprao Deshmukh, Anandrao Adsul, Diliprao Sopal, Minakshi Patil, Rajni A. Patil, Pandurang Phundkar, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, Rajan Telli, Vijay N. Vadettiwar, Yashwantrao Gadakh and others. The RBI May 7 recommended superceding the MSC Banks board and appointed two administrators to manage its affairs. Accordingly, S.K. Goyal, principal secretary of agriculture and marketing, and S. Shrivastava, secretary of planning, were appointed new administrators for the states apex co-operative bank.