VIJAYAWADA: A day after a farmer committed suicide allegedly due to the pressure by banks to repay loans, Agriculture Minister K Kanna Babu on Sunday said they have given instructions to District Cooperative Central Banks (DCCBs) and other national banks to go soft while seeking repayment of loans from farmers.
“It was brought to our notice that a bank in Prakasam district erected a board in a farmer’s land demanding repayment of loan. We told them to respectfully ask and not to insult the farmers. We have also given directions to district collectors regarding the same,” he said.
It may be recalled that a farmer, Shakamuri Hanumantha Rao of Rajupalem village in Martur mandal of Prakasam district, ended his life allegedly after bank officials pasted notices regarding the auction of his land for non-repayment of the loan he took on his land. Hanumantha Rao took a loan of Rs 1.8 lakh from the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) in 2016 and could not repay the loan. A total of `41,000 was credited into his account as part of the previous government’s loan waiver scheme and the bank officials have sent notices to him to repay the balance amount.
As he could not, bank officials pasted notices that the pledged land will be put for auction in the bank’s premises at Martur headquarters at the village entry arch, near his house and some other places in the village. Humiliated over pasting of notices, the farmer hanged himself to death in his agriculture fields on Sunday.