Karimnagar: Employees and customers of the Mudra Agriculture and Skill Development Society are worried over the shutdown of its branches, one after another, after frenzied collection of deposits from many through its employees here.
The society was launched on 12 April 2017 and it got registered under the multi-state co-operative society act 2002 with its headquarters at Nallakunta in Hyderabad and Rama Dasappa Naidu as its chairman.
It had the professed aim of improving the financial condition of the poor or ordinary people in rural areas. It opened around 15 branches in the old Karimnagar district and built a staff-strength of about 200.
The society collected Rs 1.5 lakh from each of these employees in the name of a security fund and gave them bonds with an assurance that the society would become a state-owned bank and all of them will become permanent government employees. They were promised a salary of Rs 20,000 per month.
Later, the society reduced the salary to between Rs 8.000 and Rs 12,000 and the employees were asked to reach out to the public and bring customers to the society. The society promised its customers a high rate of interest, some three per cent more than what the well-established banks offered.
Several employees, to protect their jobs, worked hard to enlist customers and deposits for the bank even by telling them that the society is linked to the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and the KCR Sahakara Runa Bhavanam.
The employees of Ramadugu branch in this district alone collected around Rs 40 lakh in deposits from customers. The employees say they were unaware that the society was not affiliated with any government scheme. For the past few months, the society stopped paying salary to the employees as also the interest to its customers and rents to the offices that functioned from private buildings.
Some of the branches in Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Godavarikhani and Srirampur areas were abruptly closed, much to the surprise of the employees themselves. In some areas, this happened after the society did not pay rent to the building owners for many months. Some of these owners, thereon, seized the furniture etc.
Last week, one Yennam Sai Krihna Reddy who joined as a trainee accountant in the society at Christian colony near Court chowrasta in the heart of the city committed suicide by hanging from the fan at his house, unable to face the pressure exerted by the customers who deposited around Rs 28 lakh in the society at his instance. This, after the office remained closed for two months.
Another victim, Bhaskar Rao of this district, told Deccan Chronicle that his wife joined as an employee with the society in the hope it would become a state bank. She deposited Rs 1.5 lakh to get the job. The society initially paid her Rs 10,000 per month as salary and gave her fixed targets.
“To reach the target, me and my wife collected `22 lakh from our relatives and friends and deposited this in the society. For the past few months, my wife is not getting the salary and the directors are also missing these days.”
He added, “After learning that an employee committed suicide, our relatives and friends are after us to get their money back. We are in deep trouble and facing mental tension. We hope the government would intervene and settle the problems for once and for all.”
