Karnataka farmers protest against RBI, demand change in loan policy

Bengaluru: Demanding a change of loan policy and delinking CIBIL score for extending the agricultural loan, thousands of farmers staged a protest against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Members of the Federation of State Farmers Associations and Karnataka Sugarcane Cultivators Association arrived from all across the state to protest in front of the RBI. However, the agitators were stopped by the police and a protest was staged near the building of the Department of Public Instruction.
The farmers insisted that the RBI officers should speak to them and resolve the issue. The police department had made tight security arrangements in the premises of the RBI.
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“When agricultural loans are granted, CIBIL score should not be considered. We are farmers who feed the country. Sometimes we are not able to pay back loans due to floods, or famine. It is not tenable to reject loans based on CIBIL scores,” he said.
“The RBI should take back its loan policy. If it does not then the protests will continue. Farmers are not even getting Rs 1 lakh loan on their land which is worth crores of rupees, but loans in lakhs are given for the construction of houses,” he angrily stated.