The Kerala government has asked the Registrar, Cooperation department, to initiate disciplinary action against an official of the Urban Cooperative Bank, Muvattupuzha, who issued an order to lock and attach the house of V.A. Ajesh Kumar for defaulting on a loan, Minister for Cooperation V.N. Vasavan has said.
The attachment had kicked up a row after Mathew Kuzhalnadan, Muvattupuzha MLA, broke open the lock of the house and let Mr. Kumar’s children in.
The action followed a preliminary inquiry report from the department. The Minister told the media on the sidelines of the 23rd Party Congress of the CPI(M) here on Wednesday that the official had acted against the government policy that barred evicting people and rendering them homeless. Loan defaulters should not be evicted from their houses if they own property up to four cents of land. Alternative arrangements should have been made for their stay if they were being evicted.
Mr. Vasavan also termed as illegal the action of Mr. Kuzhalnadan. Though the action of the bank officials, who had gone to the house armed with a court order under the SARFAESI Act, was not correct, what the MLA did was also against the law, the Minister said.
Asked if some officials had been made scapegoats to save the face of the government, Mr. Vasavan said a detailed report had been sought on the issue.
