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Modi urges banks to lend more to impoverished farmers

India Blooms News Service | | Apr 02, 2015, at 11:32 pm

#Narendra Modi urges banks to lend more to impoverished farmers

New Delhi, Apr 2(IBNS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged banks to lend more to the debt-ridden farmers to save them from plight and suicides.

He also asked the Reserve Bank of India to come up with a 20 year roadmap for greater access to the formal banking system.

"Can't we ask ourselves how we can make our banking system so strong that no farmer is forced to give up his life just because he can't repay the loan ?" he said at a programme celebrating 80th anniversary of RBI.

The central bank's governor Raghuram Rajan and Finance minister Arun Jaitley were present at the programme.

Modi said he is pained to hear of increased reports of farmers committing suicides after being unable to repay their loans to money lenders.

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

Modi said farmers' plight should "shake the conscience" of the banking sector.

"We take them out of poverty, they just need a bit of hand holding,"he said.

The Prime Ministrer said 14 crore people have opened bank accounts since his government launched a major financial inclusion initiative last year.

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