Monday, March 14, 2016

It is not Mallaya alone!


In yet another case of wilful default, a consortium of 10 banks — with "Indian Bank"as the lead bank— is on the lookout for two missing directors of a firm called Varun Industries for duping it to the tune of Rs 2,555.56 crore.

Directors of Varun Industries, Kiran Mehta and Kailash Agarwal, are on the run after duping 10 banks to the tune of Rs 2,555 crore; their office in Byculla and residential properties have been sealed and will be auctioned off.

Indian Bank issued a public notice on March 4, 2016, against Varun Industries directors Kiran Mehta and Kailash Agarwal stating they owed the Consortium money. It reads: "This is to inform that M/S Varun Industries limited, having its office in Byculla east, having Kiran Mehta and Kailash Agarwal as directors had availed credit facilities aggregating Rs 1,798.37 crore as on July 31, 2013, from the Consortium of banks. Both the directors furnished their personal guarantees, in order to avail the aforesaid credit facilities. However, none of them is available at the addresses given to us, and are not traceable/responding. The company has not furnished several details despite the commitments made by the company in the various consortium meetings and even after repeated follow-up with the company, in this regard."

The notice further mentions that the company failed to peacefully handover possession of some of their properties mortgaged to the bank and sought clarification/response from the duo within 30 days from the issuance of the notice. If the firm fails to respond, then the consortium would be constrained to proceed based on prima facie view as borne out by records to report to CBI/CIBIL as non co-operative borrower. Also, Varun industries have been declared as Non-performing Asset (NPA).

"Please take further note that the account has been classified as NPA. The amount due to the consortium as on July 31, 2015, is R2,555.56 crore. Please not that the aforesaid amount doesn't include the legal expenses, other charges borne by the bank so far and interest from August 31, 2015 onwards. The bank reserves the right to claim the legal and other expenses incurred/to be incurred as well as future interest," the notice reads.

Unavailable
When this correspondent visited the Varun Industries office in Byculla, he observed that the locked shutter was splattered with bank notices.

A similar scenario was witnessed at the apartments owned by Agarwal and Mehta in Shankheshwar Darshan building. One of Mehta's neighbours said, "We haven't seen Mehta or anyone from his family for a very long time. We don't know where they stay."

However, the security guard claimed that Agarwal's flat was occupied by a tenant. Upon inspection, the flat appeared to be locked from the outside.

Similarly, two apartments on the 19th and 20th floor at Vardhaman Heights in Byculla (East) — owned by Mehta and Agarwal respectively — were being guarded by a watchman hired by the bank. Upon inquiry, the guard said his job was to inform the bank the moment he sees anyone entering the sealed flats.

When contacted, L Raman, DGM for Indian Bank — who had signed the notices against the duo — refused to divulge details stating that he was not authorised to comment. However, a senior bank official said, "Rules state we have to issue a notice and follow the protocol thereafter. We will auction their properties as scheduled and initiate every legal action to recover our money."

The Consortium
Indian Bank (Consortium lead bank), JMFL (UCO Bank), Central Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, State Bank of India, United Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ARCIL (IDBI) and Allahabad Bank. About Varun Industries established in 1989 as a small trading house, the company was incorporated as Varun Continental Ltd in March 1996. And was renamed Varun Industries Limited in April 2005. After foraying into steel ware upon inception, the company ventured into exporting stainless steel cookware, raw materials, oil and natural gas, wind energy, uranium, mining, gems and jewellery.

Failed bid
One of the banks in the Consortium tried auctioning 7,682 square meters of land and a building admeasuring 5,184 square meters in Melgaon, Nashik, at a reserve price of Rs 10 crore in February last week. However, the auction turned to be a damp squib owing to a poor response.

http://m.mid-day.com/articles/mumbais-mallyas-directors-of-a-firm-dupe-10-banks-for-rs-2555-crore/17033151

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

IDBI



IDBI Bank staff take en masse to Twitter
Updated: March 7, 2016 22:43 IST | Vinson Kurian

IDBI Bank employees and their family members took en masse to Twitter on Sunday to continue with their protest against the move to dilute the Centre’s stake in the bank, as announced in the Budget.
The tweets started after the intranet blog of the MD and CEO was closed for comments on Saturday after the staff members wrote some 7,500 protest notes post the dilution announcement.
For two hours around Sunday noon, ‪#‎saveidbibank‬ was in the top five trending list. Tweets were sent to the pages of the Prime Minister, the PMO, and the Finance Minister, among a list of top policymakers.
Being the youngest and tech-savvy public sector bank with an average employee age of 32, it was natural for the staff to take to Twitter, according to a representative of the employee union.
In a way, it helped them reach out to the world at large as the intranet blog of the MD and CEO limited the reach to one another while logging into the company’s private network.
Twitter also helped family members of the staff to tweet against the move to privatise the bank, the representative said.
According to him, this marked a first in trade union members taking the technology route to protest against what he called a ‘wrong policy decision’ that ‘threatened’ their job prospects.
The Hindu Business Line

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Strike in Honda


This is what private sector.
This is what FDI.

The Massive Honda Workers’ Protest That Media Doesn’t Care About: A Detailed Report

March 5, 2016
This significant struggle/situation has been wiped out from the media, except for some references in the business press.

The struggle of 3000 Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) workers of Tapukara plant in Alwar, situated at Haryana-Rajasthan border, in the face of brutal repression from the management-police-administration side, has emerged as an important and intense workers struggle at the present time. As the workers saw commonality and forged unity across internal segmentation, initiated the process of Union formation on 6 August 2015 and submitted a collective Charter of Demand on 14 December 2015, they faced attacks in various forms. It included a criminal conspiracy by the Management to suppress the workers collectivity and Union process using deceitful legal and manifestly illegal means via labour department and the Court, transfer-suspension-termination of Union leaders and retrenchment of around 800 active contract workers.

(Over 3000 HMSI workers along with workers from hundreds of other factories in solidarity gather in Gurgaon on 19th February to march to the Honda HQ)

On 16th February, 2000 workers across categories of permanent-casual-trainee-contract came together to stop work and do a sit-in strike inside the factory. The immediate reason was an Executive Engineer physically attacking a contract worker in the Paint Shop, forcing the physically unwell worker to work overtime for the fourth consecutive day. Long standing demands of reinstatement of terminated workers and ceasing management attacks on Union formation were stated. The same evening, instead of any negotiation, the workers leadership was immediately abducted and at the behest of the management, the assembled workers were brutally lathi-charged and repressed by Joint Police forces of Rajasthan and Haryana combined with illegal bouncers, Continuous arresting, hounding, and slapping false cases ranging from attempt to murder, rioting to looting, is going on.
At present, over 2000 workers have not returned to work, the management is sending mass suspension letters to hundreds of workers, as they bring in contract workers from far-away states to illegally resume production at the cost of workers livelihood. But production continues to drop to a few vehicles from the daily normal output of 5000 units.

This repression from the management-police-administration comes as an expressed move to suppress the workers legitimate right to Union formation and collective bargaining, right to permanent jobs, respect and dignity at/of work, and more importantly, the emerging collective strength and subjectivity of workers in the factory and beyond. Even as company profits are soaring to record heights, this repression is to facilitate the continuing unabated exploitation of an insecure and unorganized workforce forced to work, work, and work more without relief, in the underbelly of new industrial regions (like in Tapukara-Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana-Bahror) and industrial corridors under ‘Make in India’ through a coercive surveillance and militarized regime.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

BEFI's Dharna

Today BEFI Union has conducted a day long Dharna at New Delhi opposing
1.Govt., move to privatise Public Sector Banks
2. and Banking reforms.

 AIBOC President Com.Harvindarsingh addressed the dharna.
 Com.Tapan singh, MP. & Gen. Sec. Central Trade Union addressed the dharna.
Com. From AIBEA also came and greeted the Dharna.
 Com.Pradip Biswas, General Secretary, BEFI addressed the Dharna after meeting the Honourable Finance minister
Arun Jaitely and gave memorandum.