Collector M. Vijayalakshmi has appealed to all the bankers and micro-finance lending institutions in the district to ensure that their representatives or collection agents do not harass the borrowers to repay the EMI or other loans taken.
Speaking at a meeting attended by top bankers and officials from the Mahalir Thittam and among other departments she said on Thursday that the Reserve Bank of India and the Centre had clearly given guidelines to the banks.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, economic activities had come to a standstill. Hence, it was not practical for the borrowers to repay at this juncture. For the government, fighting the pandemic was top priority and to save lives, she pointed out.
Under such circumstances, Ms Vijayalakshmi said that there were many complaints from Self-Help Groups and other small and micro borrowers that some of the financial institutions humiliated them to repay the EMI.
The district administration, the Collector said, would initiate legal action against those institutions and urged them to refrain from pursuing the borrowers to repay.
The Collector said that as per the RBI guidelines, PSU banks have been instructed to give COVID-19 loans to those eligible account holders and directed the Mahalir Thittam officials to coordinate with the banks and the people seeking loans.
