Disqualify loan defaulters, bank unions urge CEC-The Hindu 20th March 2014
The All India Bank Employees’ Association has sought the immediate intervention of Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath to disqualify top loan defaulters from entering the poll fray.
Talking to The Hindu on Tuesday, general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said the top 50 defaulters owed the banks more than Rs. 40,000 crore. Among them were a sitting MP, a Union Minister and two Padma Shri awardees, who together needed to repay over Rs.7,800 crore.
Representatives of other unions have made similar a request to the CEC, for safeguarding their banks.
‘Make it a criminal offence’
“We have always been demanding that wilful default be declared a criminal offence. Today, we have written to the CEC to incorporate a specific provision to debar and disqualify candidates from contesting the coming Lok Sabha polls if they or the companies they are connected with are defaulters. We have sent the entire list of defaulters as there are chances of their contesting,” Mr. Venkatachalam said.
The letter said bad loans had increased more than four-fold from Rs.39,000 crore in March 2008 to Rs.1,64,600 crore in March 2013 and, in the last five years, the banks had to set aside profits ranging from Rs.11,000 crore to Rs.1,40,000 crore to offset bad debts.
Mr. Venkatachalam mentioned Kingfisher Airlines and Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals among the defaulters.
Debar bank loan defaulters from contesting polls, demands AIBEA-The Hindu
All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has sought the immediate intervention of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to incorporate a special provision to debar and disqualify top bank loan defaulters from contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
Talking to The Hindu, AIBEA general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said the top 50 defaulters have to pay more than Rs.40,000 crore to the banking sector. The list includes a sitting Member of Parliament, a Central Minister and two Padma Sri awardees, who owe collectively over Rs.7,800 crore.
Similar requests have been made by the representatives of bank unions to the CEC, to safeguard their banks that have been incurring huge losses in the recent years due to increase in wilful defaults.
Moreover, the performance of the banks suffered as huge sums of profits was set aside to meet the bad debts.
“We have always been demanding to declare wilful default as criminal offence. Today, we have written to the CEC to incorporate a specific provision to debar and disqualify candidates from contesting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, if they or the companies in which they are connected are defaulters of loans to Banks. We have also sent the entire list of defaulters as there are chances of these defaulters contesting the elections,” he said.
In his letter, Mr. Venkatachalam said that the bad loans have increased by four-fold from Rs.39,000 crore in March 2008 to Rs.1,64,600 crore in March 2013. In the last five years, the banks have set aside profits ranging from Rs.11,000 crore to Rs.1,40,000 crore.
He also mentioned the names of Kingfisher Airlines and Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals among others.
My Comments
You have so many RTI masters, you may collect the information easily.Even Election Commissioner EC knows who are loan defaulters because each candidate have to declare the same while filing nomination.
There are so many liars who conceal the fact, some are loan defaulters in the name of family members, some are involved in loan as director or partner and they cleverly hide this information.
It is however true that if politicians are debarred from contesting election many of them will be rejected . They should be asked to give affidavit on oath that they and their family have not taken any loan and if taken their status should be submitted and then cross checked by banks concerned.
There are several rules to debar loan defaulters but unfortunately none of the enforcing agencies are serious and politicians are also not interested to give much importance to this critical issue.
Can you tell me under which rule ,law, act it is stated that a wilful defaulter , defaulter declared judgement debtor by court cannot stand for election s .
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