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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Change in default law to shield farmer land

Change in default law to shield farmer land

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published Published on Mar 13, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 13, 2012
-The Telegraph
 
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered an amendment to a state law to prevent rural co-operative banks from attaching the land of loan-defaulter farmers without government approval.

The directive was issued after Mamata came across two posters by a co-operative bank controlled by Trinamul Congress leaders, which sought to auction the land of farmers who have not repaid loans.

“I am assuring my brothers that nobody will go to confiscate your properties. I have already instructed the bank to withdraw the notice,” the chief minister said.

The amounts involved in the two cases range from Rs 61,000 to Rs 1.18 lakh but officials in the co-operative sector said every penny counts for the struggling institutions. The co-operative bank in question alone is yet to collect Rs 46 crore and is expecting a loss of Rs 2 crore this year.

They expressed the fear that few farmers, emboldened by the chief minister’s statement, would now repay the loans.

Mamata instructed the co-operative bank in East Midnapore’s Tamluk to withdraw the notices to confiscate the properties. “It (the bank) has issued posters based on West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 2006, which was framed by the previous Left Front government,” Mamata said.

But the Tamluk Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank has been run by a board dominated by Trinamul since 2010. The chairman of the bank is the block president of Trinamul.

The chief minister said the notices were in violation of RBI guidelines. “There is a guideline of the Reserve Bank of India that properties can be confiscated if one fails to repay loans of more than Rs 5 lakh. But in this case, the farmers had taken loans worth Rs 80,000-90,000. We will amend the act,” she said.

Banks usually do not demand collateral for priority sector loans below Rs 5 lakh.

However, co-operative bank officials said rural co-operative works do not operate under RBI guidelines. Such banks are governed by the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, which does not mention a threshold amount below which attachments cannot be carried out, an official said.

A proposal has gone from the chief minister’s office to the co-operation department to amend the law. The words “subject to approval of the state government” will be added to Clause 122, which deals with seizure and auction of mortgaged land.

“The Left Front had penetrated all areas, including the co-operative societies, and such posters were released only to spoil the plan to observe March 14 as farmers’ day,” Mamata said.

Bank chairman Nikunja Manna said 19,521 farmers with loans totalling Rs 46 crore had turned defaulters. “The bank incurred a loss of Rs 66 lakh in the last financial year. This year, the loss may run up to Rs 2 crore,” Manna said.

One of the two defaulters is Panchanan Chowdhury, 68, a resident of Kurpai village in Tamluk. “Panchanan had taken Rs 80,000 in October 2005 by mortgaging 1.25 acres. He has repaid only Rs 4,689. With accumulating interest, his unpaid loan now stands at Rs 118,262,” Manna said.

Panchanan said over mobile phone that he had taken the loan to cultivate betel leaf. “But my crop failed and that is why I could not repay my loan. Now I have asthma. My three sons work as labourers and earn very little. I don’t have the capacity to repay,” Panchanan said.

The Telegraph, 13 March, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120313/jsp/frontpage/story_15243680.jsp


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