PANAJI: It was a question of so close yet so far for the ruling panel of the Goa State Cooperative Bank (GSCB) on Sunday after the results of the board elections saw the Ramchandra Mule panel retaining its hold over the bank despite indirect government pressure and appeals from the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar.

The ruling panel got nine of its members elected while its opposing panel got six members elected. One member was elected as an independent.
However, by 8.15 pm, the equation changed and saw the opposing panel tally rise to 11. Nine members along with Mr Mule’s opposing panel chief, Sanguem BJP MLA Mr Subhash Phaldessai, were with the Chief Minister at his official bungalow. And to top it all, Mr Mule is set to face an inquiry by the government for alleged irregularities. 
The Chief Minister told media at his residence that nine of the members had approached him with another two having also shown interest. “I have told them to run it (bank) well and strengthen it,” Mr Parrikar said.
“In my opinion nine members plus another two are going to do something good for the bank so I am going to support them,” the Chief Minister said, adding, “Till now I had not intervened in the bank. The government could have, but it did not.”
The chairman has, however, not been finalised. An appeal had been made by the Chief Minister earlier that good people should be elected as directors as the people running the bank had destroyed it. 
The Reserve Bank of India had approached the government on the capital inadequacy ratio issue and this was serious enough, the Chief Minister said, for the bank to lose its licence.
“They have asked for the Laadli Lakshmi scheme to go through the bank. I promised to help. There is also a problem with the capital adequacy ratio. It has not been maintained. To set it right the government will help. The net assets that are negative will be made positive. If not, the banking licence can be lost,” Mr Parrikar said, adding, “Inquiry on Mule will definitely happen. Till now nothing has been done as he would have accused us of manipulating.”
The Chief Minister also promised that he would work out the dues owed by the Kadamba Transport Corporation to the bank and help to reduce the non-performing assets, adding that under Mr Mule’s leadership the bank was not functioning at all.