Mayawati to RBI: Direct banks to provide loan interest position

Lucknow, Feb 7 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today appealed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct all banks to provide drought-hit Bundelkhand farmers' loan interest position to the government.

The information would help the government in waiving off the farmers loans.

During a meeting with RBI Governor Y V Reddy here Bungalow, Mayawati said ''in the last four yrs, an arrangement for disposing off interest on agricultural loans upto Rs 50,000 was made in the budget.'' Mr Reddy said that a meeting of RBI and state government officials would be called soon to solve the grievances of the drought victims.

He further assured the CM that RBI would provide all possible assistance to the government in its relief measures kickstarted in the Bundelkhand region.

Earlier in the day, the Central Board of Directors of the RBI reviewed the key economic monetary and financial developments in the country during its quarterly meeting of the RBI board held at Lucknow.

Apart from holding meetings in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and one meeting in New Delhi held after the Union budget and addressed by the Finance minister, the quarterly meetings of the Board are held in State capitals by rotation.

The main function of the Central Board of Directors was to provide overall direction to the bank's affairs. Directors, who attended the meeting included Prof U R Rao, Mr Y H Malegam, Prof Suresh Tendulkar, Mr Lakshmi Chandr, Dr Ashok S Ganguly, Mrs Sashi RAjagopalan, Prof M M Sharma and Mr Sanjay Labroo. RBI Governor Y V Reddy chaired the meeting.

Deputy Governors Rakesh Mohan, V Leeladhar, Mrs S Gopinath and Usha Thorat were also present.

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