Co-operative Bank faced Rs. 30 cror’s scam in E – Rickshaw scheme.

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Cooperative Bank have been received a complaint of rigging, in loan distribution of Chief Minister E-Rickshaw Scheme. The bank distributed less loans to the people of Uttarakhand and a lot of loans to the people of UP, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana only on the basis of Aadhaar card. Not only this, CCTV cameras have also been installed on rent in the bank premises for which lakhs of rupees are being spent.

The then Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, in March 2018 launched the Chief Minister E-Rickshaw Public Welfare Scheme, run by the State Cooperative Bank in Haldwani. The objective of the scheme was that the poor and deprived sections of the state can start their business by purchasing e-rickshaws by taking loan from the bank. Although, following the instructions of government, the registrar cooperative societies have set up an inquiry in this context.

According to the report, initially this scheme was for the local residents of the state, but later some officers changed the rules. Due to this, the local people were less among the borrowers and there was a flood of people from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Delhi. Now these people are not even returning the bank loan. It is being told that loans worth Rs 30 crore have been disbursed so far under this scheme. Banks had disbursed loans only on Aadhaar card without completing the papers.

In this regard, Manoj Patwal, director of Uttarakhand State Cooperative Bank Haldwani, had complained to the government in the past. In this, he had also mentioned the loss of lakhs of rupees incurred by the government in installing CCTV cameras on rent in the State Co-operative Bank. He said that it is important to install CCTV cameras in the bank, but cameras could also be installed by purchasing them. Whereas, the bank is paying lakhs of rupees every year to the private entity as rent.