The indifference of nationalised banks towards the cause of farmers during the UPA regime has been proved through the humiliations and assaults undergone by Govindasamy Balan (40), a farmer in Pappanadu village in Thanjavur district. He does not venture out of his house anymore as he was assaulted, humiliated and disgraced by police officials and representatives of Kotak Mahindra Bank on March 4 for not repaying an agricultural loan availed by him from the bank in 2011.
“I had availed a loan of Rs 3,80,430/- from the Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2011 to purchase a tractor. I gave back Rs 4,11,200/- and could not pay two instalments of the loan due to two consecutive crop failures. In spite of my pleadings not to take away the tractor and I would pay the money at the earliest, the bank’s officials with the help of police officers of Pappanadu physically assaulted me and took away the tractor by force in front of hundreds of villagers,” said Balan over telephone from Pappanadu.
Farmers in Thanjavur, described as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, are distressed over the incident. “The bank does not have any right to resort to this kind of action as Balan has already remitted the principal amount. What he had to pay was the interest and he should have been given time to pay it as he was a victim of successive crop failures,” said Kattumannarkoil Kannan, a farmer leader from Cuddalore district. He said the entire farming community was upset over the incident and one need not be surprised if the farmers resort to crop holiday to protest this kind of high handedness on the part of bank officials and police.
Balan said he approached the private bank because of the failure of the nationalised banks to issue agricultural loan. “I had pleaded with the Bank of India for a loan to purchase the tractor. But when I found that the authorities were dragging the issue, I was left with no other option than the private bank though the interest rate was more than 20 per cent,” said Balan.
Interestingly, this happened during the tenure of S S Palanimanickam as the Union Minister of State for Finance. Palanimanickam was the lok Sabha member representing Thanjavur.
“The amount set apart to be issued as agriculture loan does not reach the farmers. It is issued to people who do not have anything to do with agriculture. There are instances when this amount was diverted to buy fleet of Mercedez Benz cars for the rich and powerful,” said Arpathi Kalyanam, president, Farmers Welfare Association,Tamil Nadu.
Virudhachalam R Giri, president, Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA), demanded the setting up of a monitoring system to ensure that the agricultural loan reaches only the farmers and not others. “Our banks are not that transparent when it comes to agricultural loans. They issue loans from the amount meant for agricultural loans to buy cars, consumer durables and other things.
Poor farmers are sent back under one pretext or other. There is no monitoring system to safeguard the interests of farmers who are in need of loans,” said Giri. He also questioned the role of police in seizing tractor from Balan.