The State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) has directed all banks in the State not to resort to stringent or unethical measures to recover loans from farmers, particularly arecanut, pomegranate and grape growers, who are affected by natural calamities.
The direction came after the State government raised the issue of banks resorting to coercive measures to recover loans even as several crops have been damaged.
Kagodu Thimmappa, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, while chairing a meeting of people’s representatives and arecanut growers on Tuesday, had urged banks not to forcibly recover loans. The Principal Secretary of the Horticulture Department had also written to the SLBC about the plight of pomegranate and grape growers.
Mr. Thimmappa told the banks that the government would take up the issue of waiver of crop loans taken by areca growers with the Union government. He pointed out that a special leave petition filed by Congress Kissan Cell vice-president Sachin Meega seeking implementation of the Gorakh Singh committee report is pending in the Supreme Court. Till the issue is settled, the banks should not force farmers to repay loans, he said.
Mr. Meega told The Hindu that acres of fertile arecanut plantations were destroyed by the yellow leaf disease in Chikmagalur and Shimoga districts whereas the crop was largely affected by rot disease due to heavy rain in other arecanut growing regions.
The growers had been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, he noted.
The severity of the problem was so that 95 farmers had committed suicide due to non-payment of loans between 2005 and 2013 in Chikmagalur district, he said.
The SLBC directive has come as a breather even though a scheme involving governments, banks and farmers is yet to be framed. Under the scheme, the Union government, the State government, banks and farmers, have to share 25 per cent each of the loan burden.
Mr. Meega hoped that the State government would immediately send a proposal to the Union government at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing the special leave petition on the implementation of the Gorakh Singh committee report.
