The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has urged upon Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to notify that bank loan defaulters are ‘ineligible’ to contest the upcoming general election for the 17th Lok Sabha, which will be held from April 11 to May 19.
“It is also a well-known fact that bulk of these bad loans are attributable to the big business and the affluent. In many of the cases of bank loan default, it is found to be deliberate, wilful and on account of diversion of funds, etc. Unfortunately, bank loan default is still a civil offence and hence criminal proceedings are not being instituted against them,” AIBEA general secretary Ch.Venkatachalam observed in his letter addressed to CEC Sunil Arora on Sunday night.
Venkatachalam said that they had been demanding the publication of the names of these defaulters periodically by the government but of no avail. “We also been demanding criminal action at least again the wilful defaulters, which also, the government is avoiding and evading. All these are encouraging the big borrowers to take loan and cheat the banks. It is obvious, that cheating the banks is nothing but cheating the people, as banks extend loan from the money deposited by the people,” he said.
He said that instead of taking tough action on the defaulting borrowers, the Union government is showing too much of lenience whereby these defaulting borrowers are able to extract huge concessions in repayment and banks are compelled to suffer heavy haircuts.
The top union leader said: “We have the bitter experience in the past where bank loan defaulters have been able to contest elections, become parliamentarians and legislators and have even become Ministers. We have been demanding, in public interest, that bank loan defaulters should not be permitted to contest elections or hold any public office.”
Since the nominations by the candidates will be filed now for the ensuing elections, we seek your special attention to this important aspect and issue notification and suitable guidelines that while the nomination papers are filed by the candidates, a declaration should be obtained that he/she and the companies in which they are having stake and connections are not bank loan defaulters.
“We are sure that the Election Commission would consider the national interest involved and issue suitable guidelines,” the AIBEA General Secretary added. (UNI)
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