Deccan Chronicle facing serious fund crunch: RP

Hyderabad: Mamta Binani, the Insolvency Resolution Professional for city-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL), on Tuesday said that the media house whose flagship brand is Deccan Chronicle daily was facing  financial crisis and as result, salaries were not paid for the past four months.Making an appeal toRatakonda Murali, Member (Judicial), Court-I of Hyderabad Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), to speed up the process of approval of the resolution plan shesubmitted to the court,Binani admitted that it was increasingly becoming difficult for her to run the operations as there was no money. 

"I am not able to run the company as there is no money. Lordship, I have not been able to pay the salaries for the past four months. We have not been paid for the last eight months”, she told the NCLT court.Binani made this appeal when DCHL resolution process case came up for hearing on Tuesday.At this juncture, the Member (Judicial) asked her whether there was no income for the company. For that, she replied: “No income,Lordship. 

Yesterday, employees’ union and others gheraoed me. It is now increasingly becoming life-threatening for me to get inside the office and run the organisation”. She further pointed out that the resolution plan was already two-months old. It may be mentioned here that in December last year, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) led by Canara Bank approved the resolution plan submitted by the Vision India Fund ofKolkata-based Srei Multiple Asset Investment Trust (SMAIT) with over 80 per cent votes. 

However, IDBI Bank, one of the financial creditors, registered its dissent and voted against the plan, saying some banks got disproportionately higher amounts from the proceeds promised by the resolution applicant.The bank which filed an interim application (IA No. 24) with the NCLT court raised objections against higher payments to some banks. Indian Overseas Bank also raised objections against the resolution plan.

Appearing for the Resolution Applicant, advocate Srikanth Hariharn sought some time to file a counter to the interim application filed by the IDBI Bank. The case is posted for hearing on February 28, when all the IAs will be taken up.