PM asks banks to help farmers, poor with loans

PM says govt & RBI thinking on similar lines, warmly praises Raghuram Rajan

Concerned over a spate of farmer suicides across India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged banks to be considerate while lending and recovering loans from debt- ridden farmers. When a farmer committed suicide, the PM said, the pain was now restricted to just newspapers and TV screens. “The plight of farmers should shake the conscience of the entire banking sector. Our farmers across the country are committing suicide. As the RBI celebrates 80 years, can we think within ourselves that we will expand our banking sector so much that farmers would not have to commit suicide because of the huge debt burden towards moneylenders? Can we not dream of this? I don’t believe that by helping the poor, a bank will become insolvent,” said Mr Modi while addressing the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Reserve Bank of India here.

Referring to his government’s “Make in India” initiative, the PM asked the RBI to look at using indigenous paper and ink for printing Indian currency. “Can we visualise that the currency that we print, the paper as well as ink will be Indian. Mahatma Gandhi, who fought so much for the country... how can his picture be printed on foreign paper?” he asked.

Mr Modi also asked the RBI to prepare a financial blueprint covering the entire country for the next 20 years to ensure that banking services were available to the poorest of the poor in India. In his address, the PM also

Continued from Page 1 appealed to the banks and India Inc to convince their employees to give up their LPG subsidy. “Those who can afford ... should not take the gas subsidy. Around two lakh people voluntarily gave up their gas subsidies. The government does not want to burden itself with subsidies. If you give up one cylinder, I will give that cylinder to people who use firewood for cooking due to which there is pollution and due to which their children have to grow up in smoke and suffer diseases,” he added.

The PM also said both the government and the Reserve Bank were thinking in similar lines and warmly praised RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s efforts in this direction. “There is lot of similarity between the thinking of the RBI and the government. This is absolutely essential. As a representative of the government, I express my satisfaction. The RBI is performing its role and I congratulate Raghuramji and his team,” he said.