The All-India Bank Employees’ Association has urged the Election Commission of India to prevent big defaulters of bank loans from contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, the association asked the commission to take steps to debar wilful defaulters who owed public sector banks huge sums of money.

The association, giving out statistics to prove its point, noted that bad loans of banks had shot up to ₹1.64-lakh crore by the end of fiscal 2012-13. Over the past five years, banks had made a provision of ₹1.40-lakh crore against bad loans. Besides, in the past five years, ₹1.18-lakh crore loans had been written off.

Holding high positions “What is disturbing is that amounts involved in wilful default of bank loans are also increasing,” the letter pointed out.

“Some of these defaulters are holding high positions. One of the borrower companies, in which a Central Minister is directly connected, is a defaulter to the tune of ₹350 crore.” Two top loan defaulters were Padma Shree awardees and they owed ₹930 crore and ₹580 crore, respectively. Another top defaulter is a Rajya Sabha member who owed banks more than ₹6,000 crore.

“Hence, besides various other existing disqualifications as provided under the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a specific provision should be added to debar and disqualify candidates from contesting in the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha, if they or the companies to which they are connected are defaulters of loans to banks,” the association said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW