Maharashtra government-appointed body urges Modi PM to address loan issues

A Maharashtra government-appointed body had urged prime minister Narendra Modi to intervene and address the alleged indifferent attitude on part of banks in providing loans to distressed farmers.

Veteran farmers' leader Kishore Tiwari, who heads the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission (VNSSM), a task force appointed to tackle agrarian crisis in the state, said that bank officials are not responding to state government's instructions to give crop to farmers whose in are in list of loan waiver beneficiaries.

Tiwari, who is associated with Shiv Sena, urged that prime minister to arrange to empower Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, as chairman of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC), to address the credit crisis.

The SLBC is only body resolve these issues, consider alternative solutions to the various problems in the field of banking development and evolve a consensus for co-ordinate action by the member institutions.

The VNSSM, set up by the state government, is empowered to recommend and ensure implementation of a host of measures for the welfare of farmers to prevent more incidents of suicides in the parched farmlands in 14 districts in its jurisdiction.

"Despite the chief minister's stress on providing bank finance to all farmers, public sector and other commercial banks continue to ignore the credit issue of distressed farmers who are committing suicides. On an average, five farmers kill themselves per day as per the government data," said Tiwari, who advises Thackeray on agrarian issues.

He claimed that most of the PSU banks are yet to start disbursement of fresh crop loans or reconstruction of pending crop loans as per the orders of the RBI and NABARD in drought-hit districts in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.

"District administration and banks should be held accountable for failure to provide crop loans to farmers seeking credit," Tiwari demanded.