BENGALURU: The state government has directed the police to register cases against nationalised banks which displayed photographs of farmers who had defaulted on their loan payment in Bidar, Home Minister K J George informed the Legislative Council here on Friday.
During zero hour, BJP member Raghunathrao Malkapure enquired about the action taken against the banks that had displayed the photographs in Bidar’s Humnabad taluk. George said, “The banks have been told to stop this and to remove the photographs of the farmers.” He said a senior police officer in Humnabad had visited the bank managers and instructed them not to resort to any loan recovery action against the defaulting farmers.
“Only the State Bank of India branch in Humnabad had resorted to displaying the photographs of the defaulting farmers,” he said.
The police sub-inspector in Humnabad also summoned the farmers concerned and tried to instil confidence in them. “The PSI has told the farmers that if they wish to file a complaint against the bank officials, it would be registered and action would be taken,” George said. The local police have directed the bank officials not to resort to drum-beating campaign to recover farm loans, he said.
A Few Farmers Found Guilty: Referring to a similar incident in Humnabad, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said officials of Karnataka Bank, Chitaguppa branch in Humnabad had filed criminal cases against 47 farmers for availing loans by producing forged revenue records. The CM said the farmers were found guilty. Similar incidents were also reported from several branches of the State Bank of Hyderabad in Bidar, where 32 criminal cases had been registered against farmers. The cases were reported between 2011 and 2013, he said.
The farmers had borrowed `18.50 lakh by producing forged documents and the bank officials have so far recovered `12.24 lakh, having filed criminal cases in Katak Chincholi police station.