Chandigarh, June 12: The Cooperative Department has identified at least 127 Congress leaders who defaulted on loan repayment and owe over Rs 13 crore to Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Limited (PADB).
The defaulters include two former MLAs, the brother of a sitting MLA, several former sarpanches and members of market committees.
Only 18 of the 127 Congress men have so far bothered to return Rs 46 lakh of the total overdue amount of Rs 13 crore.
Cooperative Minister Sukjinder Randhawa said the department had initially sent notices to 20 big defaulters. Around Rs 20 crore had been recovered so far. He said notices were being sent to those who had taken non-agriculture loan of Rs 10 lakh and above. As per the bank, most defaulters have not been paying installments since 2003.
But a Patran resident, Davinder Singh, who owes Rs 1.54 lakh to the bank, has not paid a penny since 1995.
Sangrur district Congress president Rajinder Singh has an outstanding amount of Rs 8 lakh since 2013. Similarly, Patti resident Anoop Singh, brother of Khem Karan MLA Sukhpal Bhullar, owes Rs 12 lakh to the bank.
Anoop Singh said he was not aware of the pending loan amount, but he would clear if there was any.
Source Tribune India
