THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Reacting to the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) advertisement that appeared in major dailies on Sunday, stating that recovery procedures on agricultural loan defaulters will proceed unhindered, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said SLBC’s attitude is a double standard.
The committee had brought out an advertisement on the issue relating to the suicide of two people in a family. Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar also supported Isaac’s stand. Isaac said the decision taken by the bankers was not justifiable. He said while rich businessmen have left the country after swindling lakhs of crores of rupees from banks, the hardened stand taken by bankers against poor farmers cannot be accepted.
Sunil said the banks will not be at a loss on the decision taken by the state Cabinet regarding the moratorium. The Minister said that he would meet the Reserve Bank Governor this month itself and added that if this issue needs to be handled legally, the government was willing to do that. In the advertisement, SLBC had mentioned that if the banks start the attachment process, then the moratorium ceases to exit. The committee also stated that if any bank goes ahead with the attachment process, then it can be assumed that they have the support of the Reserve Bank of India.
It may be noted the state government’s decision on moratorium for agriculture loans up to December 31 was shot down by the RBI. Sunil Kumar told the assembly that government would overcome this and on June 25, the bankers’ committee would discuss this. The Agriculture Minister also said that for moratorium up to July 31, the ban was not valid and that attachment and recovery would not be allowed.