48,000 farmers agitate against rural bank-Prabhakar Kulkarni

Forty-eight thousand farmers, members of twelve hundred co-operative credit societies in Kolhapur district, are up in arms against the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) which has asked the Kolhapur district central co-operative bank (KDCC) to recover loans that have already been waived under the union government’s loan waiver scheme four years ago.

In a rally held on Saturday, the farmers decided to resort to a massive agitation against Nabard and and KDCC. NCP MLA KP Patil said that Nabard had asked KDCC to recover the loan amounts already waived and the bank had issued written advice to the 1,200 credit co-societies in the district to debit the amounts from the accounts of the farmers concerned. Nabard pointed out after four years that the loans sanctioned by the then directorial board were not proper and should now be recovered.

The then chairman of the bank, PG Shinde, stressed that the loans sanctioned and waived were as per legal norms and, hence, NABARD had no legal right to recover loans.

It was decided that a massive agitation would be organised against both the Nabard and the KDCC by way of processions and representation to the higher authorities, and token fasts would be undertaken.

The farmers had also decided to insist that the concerned co-operative societies should not accept the debit advices issued and resort to non-cooperation with the KDCC bank.