Ministers call banks anti-farmer

Hyderabad: Ministers Etela Rajender and P. Srinivas Reddy on Monday accused public sector banks of harassing farmers while giving crop loans. They said banks were subjecting farmers to several hardships to sanction loans. Speaking at the state-level bankers’ meeting held here on Monday, the agriculture minister was more critical of Syndicate Bank, saying it had been either denying or delaying loans to farmers and that the government has received several complaints.  He expressed anger at the “commercial attitude” of banks and lack of a sense of social responsibility towards the needs of agriculture sector and farmers. He said the state government had repaid Rs 10,000 crore out of the Rs 17,000 crore arrears to banks towards the crop loan waiver scheme in two years and had agreed to pay the balance in instalments in two years.

“There is a balance of only Rs 7,000 crore and the Chief Minister is taking steps to clear these arrears at one go within a year. The farmers have nothing to do with those arrears now, as the government has taken the responsibility of repayment.,” he said. The finance minister expressed ire at the banks for not cooperating with the government in implementing the bank-linked schemes for the welfare of poorer sections of society. “The banks are denying loans to poor on the ground that they are not producing any guarantee. How can we expect the poor to provide any guarantee?”