Chairman of J&K bank Dr. Haseeb Drabu resigns

Jammu and Kashmir Bank chairman and J&K's top economist Dr. Haseeb Drabu today submitted his resignation from the bank after being told to put in his papers by the J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah.

After Sudhanshu Pandey, commissioner  / secretary to the J&K finance department conveyed Omar Abdullah's decision; Dr. Drabu, former editor of Business Standard, submitted his resignation this afternoon, which was immediately accepted by the bank's board.

Although no reason was given for calling in the resignation of an eminent economist, whose term was due to end in mid 2011, the besieged Omar Abdullah government had made sweeping changes to the state's police and bureaucracy following the recent uprising in the state.

Following Dr. Drabu's resignation, the 13-member board of the bank approached the Reserve Bank of India to seek permission for installing state finance secretary as an interim chairman to run its day-to-day functioning till a suitable replacement could be found.

The board has constituted a search committee to find the next chairman and chief executive for the bank.

Dr. Drabu took over the reins of the bank in July 2005 and was in his second term before it was cut short by the state. Earlier, Drabu, an M & D. Phil (Doctorate) in Economics from J N U, was the economic adviser to the state from January 2003 to 2009, and was instrumental in formulating the state first ever zero deficit budget.