WAIVING MICROFINANCE LOANS
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora has reacted sharply to the alleged U-turn of the BJP-led government's tall poll promise to waive the micro-finance loan of women debtors in the State.
"Earlier the BJP had made a U- Turn on the increase of daily wage of the tea garden workers and now they are doing the same with the women of Assam who had voted for the BJP in the hope that good days will come," Bora said.
According to Bora in 2019 the Congress party had voiced its demand in the Assembly that a law to regulate the various micro-financing institutions that have violated RBI regulations should be implemented. But the then Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma did not pay heed to this grave problem at that time. It is only after a lot of pressure from opposition that a resolution to this effect was passed in the Assembly in 2020, he said.
"Now the Committee that has been formed under the GDD minister Ashok Singhal to look into the modalities for loan waiver has put forward various conditions which would not benefit the women debtors at all as expected," Bora said.
A press communiqué issued by the chairperson of Media department of APCC Bobbeeta Sharma stated that the State government has made it mandatory that those women whose family monthly income is less than Rs 1 lakh will be waived and those above Rs 1 lakh will not be able to avail loan waive. Thus those families whose monthly family income is ( 100,000÷12= 8333.34) Rs 8,333 only , they will be able to avail of this loan waive facility. But today even if we calculate Rs 300/- as daily wage of a tea garden worker then excepting the women tea garden workers none other women will be able to get the loan waive. If the women tea garden workers free essential commodities is added to their daily wage , then they will also be denied the loan waive with this cap of the Government. This means a lot many women who had got trapped in the micro-finance scam would not be able to get out of it because of this condition.
"The condition also extends to those families who have four wheelers and apprehension is rife among people now that perhaps those who have refrigerators may also not get the loan waiver ! But many people buy four wheelers to make ends meet and many buy refrigerators for shops by taking loans. Some even use micro-finance to pay off EMI's as stop gap arrangements. Will such families not be included? Now there is another condition that Government will only waive loans of those micro-financing institutions that have followed RBI guidelines. Now the question arises how many such micro-financing institutions that follow RBI guidelines are actually existing?," the communiqué said.
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