Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar yesterday directed the government to set up a committee of members of the house to suggest ways to deposit funds available with jovernment run corporations into nationalised banks or with government treasury. His directive came during question hour after Minister for Finance and Planning Sudhir Mungantiwar sought directionfromthe chair inthe debate over starred question raised by Shobhatai Fadnavis (BJP) and others.
Earlier, replying to supplementary queries Mungantiwar disclosed that between June 2013-14 a total of Rs.143.45 crore of Fixed Term Deposits deposited in nationalised banks like Dena Bank were misappropriated. The amount included – Rs.45.23 cr of MMRDA, Rs.64.09 cr of MTDC, Rs.25.73 cr of MPMVC and Rs.8.10 cr of SRCCVC.
The minister informed the house that the previous government had handed over the matter for investigation to CBI and to the EOW. Mungantiwar further disclosed that the accused approached the corporations posing as representatives of Banks and offered them1 per cent to 1.5 per cent more interest rate. Later they used to approach nationalised Banks as representatives of Corporations and used electronic fund transfer instruments like RTGS to transfer funds into their bank accounts using Over Draft means, keeping original receipts with them and submitting duplicate receipts.
Mungantiwar further stated that Rs.143.15 cr government at present can recover Rs.57 cr deposited with banks. In order to recover the rest of money the government is pursuing the matter with RBI. He added that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has checked bank accounts of corporation officials and found no financial irregularities. Mungantiwar added that the CBI stated that the corporation officials were in fact cheated. The Finance Minister stated that the Finance department has now laid down norms for Corporations to invest their funds with banks or with government treasury. Mungantiwar then urged the chair to give directions for setting up of a committee comprising of members of the house to debate on the issue.