The suggestion came during an interaction with Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal, who was in the City on Tuesday.
In deference to a direction by Congress President Sonia Gandhi that Central ministers and party leaders visiting the States should pay a mandatory visit to the local party  headquarters and interact with partymen, Bansal held a meeting with the KPCC's Industrial Cell headed by  M K Ramachandra, former president of FKCCI. During the discussion that focussed on the problems of small borrowers from banks, the minister was reminded of his predecessor Janardhana Poojari, the high priest of the populist 'loan mela' scheme. Former small scale industries minister R Roshan Baig, who raised the issue, argued in favour of banks reaching out to the poor and under-privileged with a similar scheme.
Recovery rate
He stated that the loan recovery rate among this segment was much better than that of the big and influential industrialists. When the rich failed to repay loans, crores of rupees were written off by banks as non-performing assets (NPA) or bad loans. Then why single out the poor, who have proved more credit worthy, he argued.
Lending credence to his argument is an RBI report which says the recovery of small and medium loans is as high as 67 per cent.
Taking forward the argument, second line leader Prakash Rathod emphasised the problems of small borrowers in providing collateral security against loans.
Banks should waive this norm for small-time borrowers, he urged. He noted that both 2008 and 2009 were election years (with State Assembly and parliament polls due) and the party’s policies should be honed keeping people's interest at heart. 
Leader T V Maruthi spoke of the problems of small scale industries and exporters in particular. The discussion went on late into the night and Bansal promised to consider the various suggestions and come out with solutions.