Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, Lucknow, May 3: Former Secretary Government of India and the National Convener Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) Vijay Shankar Pandey today condemned both BJP and Congress for resorting to blame game in connection with the loot of national treasure through scam in Punjab National Bank (PNB). Holding both NDA and previous UPA governments fully responsible for scandal of such a menacing dimension, Mr Pandey said these parties owed an explanation to the nation for the financial crimes committed by anti-national forces.
Mr Pandey said in a statement here on Thursday public sector banks (PSBs) have been financially bleeding the nation for a long time with massively piling up of non-performing assets (NPAs) and corporate frauds, but the successive governments had not taken effective measures to control the crisis. Mr Pandey said now both Congress and BJP are blaming each other over the mega-scam to distract the attention of the people from their real failure and incompetence in saving the taxpayers money from loot. Pointing out that PNB scandal was not just handiwork of few officers, Mr Pandey said it was result of involvement of top level management with criminals and politicians of all shades.
Mr Pandey said recapitalization of banks over the last ten years following rising NPAs and corporate frauds have put massive burden on poor taxpayers and have also completely shaken the confidence of small depositors in banking. He further said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too has not been able to effectively control the functioning of these public sector banks because of governmental control over them. Mr Pandey said during the last 11 years the central government had pumped in nearly Rs 2.6 lakh crore into these banks to sustain their functioning. With crisis of governance assuming serious proportion in the banking sector, Mr Pandey said with this state of affairs the economy is destined to crash. Mr Pandey said the dimension of financial terrorism could be gauged from the fact that every four hours one bank officer is being held for fraud in the country. Mr Pandey said the PNB scandal is just tip of the iceberg as reports indicated that diamond industry is deep into financial corruption involving banks. He said the country required immediate corrective measures to set the rot into the banking sector.
