The Wayanad district Congress committee has launched a series of agitations against the move of financial institutions, including nationalised banks, to invoke the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest (SARFAESI) Act against farm loans.
DCC members staged a dharna in front of the regional office of the Canara Bank here on Monday as a part of the agitation.
Speaking after inaugurating the programme, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president T. Siddique, MLA, said that at a time when the farming community in the district was struggling with the impacts of the floods in 2018 and 2019 as well as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the sharp fall in prices of crops, the revenue recovery measures of banks invoking the SARFAESI Act could not be justified.
The government should adopt steps to rebuild the farming community’s confidence instead of demoralising them by invoking the SARFAESI Act, he said.
“I had raised the issue in the Assembly six times, but the government was yet to adopt any steps to address it,” Mr. Siddique said. Terming the ongoing revenue recovery measures of financial institutions as a State-sponsored programme, Mr. Siddique said the government was ready to spend ₹1.33 lakh crore for the K-Rail project. If it spends ₹100 crore to ₹500 crore, the issues of the farming community in the State could be resolved,” he said.
The government should adopt steps either to write off the loans of farmers or to waive the interest of loans during the moratorium period, he added.
The party would launch its second phase of agitation on March 3 by staging dharnas in front of 35 banks in the district under the aegis of Mandalam Congress Committees, Mr. Siddique said.
As many as 50,000 letters of farmers would be sent from all post offices in the district to the Prime Minister, the Union Finance Minister and the Chief Minister on March 14.
The inauguration of the protest would be held on March 10 in front of the post office here. “Japthi pradhirodha sena” (Anti-revenue recovery force) would be constituted in every grama panchayat in the later stage as part of intensifying the protest, Mr. Siddique said.
