The State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) will work out a scheme to help Kerala nurses who had returned from strife-torn countries such as Iraq and Libya and are without any income to pay back the loans they had taken from banks.
Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank R.K. Dubey, in his capacity as the convener of the SLBC, gave this promise to the State government here on Friday.
Speaking at a special meeting of the SLBC here, he told Finance Minister K.M. Mani (who was a chief guest at the meeting) that the Canara Bank already had a way of helping such borrowers in times of unexpected difficulties. The SLBC would formulate the scheme immediately so that each bank could start implementing it from the beginning of next month, with the approval of its management. Earlier, Mr. Mani requested the SLBC to set off the interest paid so far by such borrowers against the capital of their loan account and announce a moratorium on repayment till they obtained new jobs.
The special meeting of the SLBC was to prepare the banks and the State government agencies for a mission-mode programme for achieving total financial inclusion in Kerala. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to launch this comprehensive financial inclusion programme—Sampoorna Vittiyea Samaveshan—at the national level on August 15.
Anna Roy, Director, Department of Financial Services, Central Ministry of Finance, told the meeting that the new programme would address the shortcomings of the financial inclusion campaign launched in the country in 2011.
