PRIVATISE PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS

Indian banks are being hit by one fraud after another. The latest case involving the Punjab Nation Bank (PNB) is shocking. The banks are in the pockets of the country’s business elite. Some believe that senior bank officials let the rich break the rules. Overall, bureaucrats in New Delhi control 70% of the banking sector. It’s hard not to conclude that poor systems and management that enable bad lending are just another consequence of a lack of accountability inherent in the state control. The government must start privatisation of all public sector banks. Bank unions and associations should be banned and no strike should be allowed. State ownership has only made the problem worse.

SC Dhall, Zirakpur II Apropos ‘Nirav Modi is the tip of the iceberg’ (HT, Feb 17), our government has been caught sleeping even after the Mallya scandal. Nirav Modi’s fraud may prove to be just the tip of iceberg in the sea of banking scandals. A few days back, the PM had pinned the blame of NPA mess on the Congress. While he was right as the pile of bad loans was a legacy of the UPA, it is not wrong to say that the Modi-led BJP government is to be blamed for acting late. The government’s economic survey (2015-16) had flagged the issue while making a case of recognising true value of assets. The government should have undertaken a clean-up of bank balance sheets in the first two years of its term. Lal Singh