State-owned Agrani Bank Ltd has allegedly breached its commitment to provide agriculture loans to about 700 poor women, after taking deposits worth Tk. 3,200 from each of them. All these poor women from Kutir Bazar area, under Shibpur upazila in Narsingdi district, who borrowed the money from microcredit implementing agencies and deposited it in Agrani Bank, are now under pressure to repay their loans.
Selina Jahan, executive chief of the platform for poor rural women, who is also a victim of the Agrani Bank misdeed, has fired off a letter of complaint to the central bank governor. In the letter, she has also asked the governor to help in quick disbursement of loans and refund of deposits.
Selina said officials of Agrani Bank, including its general manager (rural credit and SME division) Abdul Hamid, had visited her village in January this year and promised them loans. The bank officials advised Selina and other members of the women association of the area to take training on producing composed fertilizers, and to deposit Tk. 3,200 each at the local Radhaganj branch of Agrani Bank.
“We have done everything they (bank officials) asked us to do. They were disbursing the loans in phases. Suddenly, before Eid-ul-Fitr, the local Agrani Bank manager told us that processing of loans had been stopped by the upper management. However, the bank continued to provide loans to members of the other women association, Durjoy Samabay Samity,” Selina said.
Selina alleged that an official, identified as Mobarak Hossain, deputy general manager (rural credit and SME division) of the bank, had tried to take undue advantage from the members of her association.
“He (the official) might be behind the formation of another association in the same area, overnight, and providing loans to members of that association depriving us of our due rights,” she said.
Selina is now under tremendous pressure from her association members who demand either disbursement of loans or refund of their deposits.
A top official at the Agrani Bank headquarters said the bank management had taken the issue seriously and a team of officials would be sent to the area next week to investigate the matter.
Meanwhile, sources at the secretariat of the central bank governor said the governor had ordered a probe into the allegation and stern action against those responsible for humiliating the poor women.

News: The Independent/ BAngladesh/ Sep-24-2011