Be considerate while lending to farmers: Prime Minister

Mumbai: Concerned over a spate of farmer suicides across the country, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked banks to be considerate while lending and recovering loans from debt ridden farmers.

When a farmer commits suicide, the PM said that the pain is now restricted to just newspapers and TV screens. “The plight of farmers should shake the conscience of the entire banking sector. Our farmers across the country are committing suicide. As RBI celebrates 80 years, can we think within ourselves that we will expand our banking sector so much that farmers would not have to commit suicide because of huge debt burden towards moneylenders. Can we not dream of this? I do not believe that by helping poor, a bank will become insolvent,” said Narendra Modi while addressing the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Reserve Bank of India.

Mentioning about his government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, the PM asked RBI to look at using indigenous paper and ink for printing our currency. “Can we visualise that the currency that we print, the paper as well as ink will be Indian. Mahatma Gandhi, who fought so much for the country, how can his picture be printed on foreign paper,” he asked.

Modi also asked RBI to prepare a financial blueprint for the entire country for the next 20 years to ensure that the banking services are available to the poorest of the poor. In his address, he also asked banks and India Inc to convince their employees to give up their LPG subsidy.

“Those who can afford should not take gas subsidy. Around two lakh people voluntarily gave up their gas subsidies. The government does not want to burden itself with subsidies. If you give up one cylinder, I will give that cylinder to people who use firewood for cooking due to which their children have to grow up in smoke and suffer diseases,” Modi informed at the meet.