In Samrala, a city in the district of Ludhiana, the state bank here has decided to put up pictures of farmers who have defaulted on their loans in order to shame them
It is ironic indeed. At a time when the Reserve Bank of India has refused to make public the list of loan defaulters with public sector banks, despite a Supreme Court order to make this information public, it is shocking to see that a public sector bank in Punjab has gone out of its way to name and shame farmers who have defaulted on their loans.
In Samrala, a city in the district of Ludhiana, the state bank here has decided to put up pictures of farmers who have defaulted on their loans in order to shame them. There are a litany of names and number of men and women too have not been spared.
Farmer Gurdeep Singh, who had his photograph on the board, said that he had taken Rs 1,50,000 loan from the bank and he believed that with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's recent announcement of loan waiver to small and marginal farmers for up to Rs 2 lakh loan would bring him relief. But so far the Punjab Chief Minister's announcement has been just words with the result that Singh and his fellow farmers continue to suffer. Sources say an estimated 3,000 farmers in this area may have been affected by the SBI's policy here.
Bank officials at the SBI refused to talk, only revealing that the order had come from above.
Meanwhile, outside the bank, angry farmers, whose names had been mentioned, continued to vent their anger. Another farmer, Hardeep Singh, stated that the government continued to target poor loan defaulters, while it allowed rich defaulters to get away.
"We give away whatever we have to pay the loans but nothing has come of it. We were relieved to hear about the debt waiver (announced by the CM) but so far no debt of ours has been waived away. Defaulters like Vijay Mallya have run away with crores of rupees but so far none of them have been caught. In our case the government has shamed by showing our photos. What choice do farmers have but to take their own lives?"
Meanwhile, Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union had said that according to the rules of the RBI such action by the bank is illegal. "No bank has any such right, to defame anybody in this manner. If any farmer comes forward we are ready to file a lawsuit against the bank."
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