Southern States - Karnataka   

Stop loan recovery, Govt. urged

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA Feb. 12. The former minister, S.K. Kanta, said today that the Congress Government in the State should demit office immediately owning moral responsibility for its failure to curb the rising incidence of suicide by farmers due to the burden of loan and the failure of crops.

In a statement issued here, Mr. Kanta said that it was surprising that the Government, which had declared 158 taluks drought hit, was allowing cooperative and nationalised banks to recover crop loans extended to farmers. "When farmers are in distress after losing their crops, where should they go for money to repay the loans?" he asked.

Mr. Kanta said that it was unfortunate that bank officials had allegedly adopted unfair means to attach the property of farmers who failed to repay loans. He claimed that two farmers committed suicide in Gulbarga District on Tuesday unable to bear the humiliation inflicted by bank officials by attaching their property.

He said that besides Sharanappa Natikar of Khanadal village, who committed suicide by consuming pesticide after the Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (PCARDB) officials conducted a raid on his house and attached his property for a loan of Rs. 35,000 taken by his deceased father six years ago, another person at Hire Jewargi in Afzalpur taluk, who could not repay loans, hanged himself.

Mr. Kanta demanded that the Government immediately direct the PCARDB officials to suspend loan recovery proceedings and "harassment" of farmers.

In another statement, the Rural District unit of the BJP condemned the PCARDB officials' raid on Natikar's house, and their alleged use of abusive language against him.The President of the BJP's Rural District unit, Mahantagouda Patil, the General Secretary, Arvind Guruji, and the Yuva Morcha General Secretary, Sanganna Ijeri, urged the Government to immediately release a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to Natikar's family.

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