Farmers suicide: Narendra Modi tells banks to be considerate in giving loans to poor

Mumbai, Apr 2: Concerned over rising incidents of farmer suicide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today nudged banks to be considerate in giving and recovering loans from poor saying banks would not shut by helping them.

"As 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 huge debt burden. Can we not dream of this?... I do not believe that by helping poor a bank will become insolvent," he said.

Farmers' plight should "shake the conscience" of the banking sector, he said addressing the 80th anniversary celebrations of the RBI where Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan were also present.

"Our farmers commit suicide. The pain of this should not only be restricted to newspapers and TV screens. When farmer dies, does it shake the heart of banking sector? Because of taking loan from money lender, he has to face death," Modi said.

He also asked the Reserve Bank to prepare a 20-year road map for financial inclusion and suggested that the Indian currency should be printed using indigenous paper and ink.

Lauding the efforts of Reserve Bank in improving macroeconomic conditions in the last eight decades, Jaitley said that the central bank's professionalism has served the country well.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajan cautioned the banks against excessive lending to infrastructure sector projects as it may impact their financial stability.

PTI