August 5, 2024
Mahua Moitra’s supplementary question during Question Hour on whether a time limit can be set for approving loans for farmers, entrepreneurs, etc. in rural areas
Thank you, Sir. I would like to seek a clarification from the hon. Minister through you. I come from a rural area of Krishnanagar in West Bengal. It has seven very rural constituencies bordering Bangladesh. Most of the people are involved in agriculture, and their access to credit is through the nationalized banks. Unfortunately, whenever our farmers and small entrepreneurs go to the nationalized banks, their loans take an inordinate amount of time to get processed. Sir, if there was any notification from your Ministry to the nationalized banks to set an outer limit of, say, 30 days or 45 days to either say ‘yes or no’ to the farmers and small entrepreneurs so that they are not kept waiting for 90 days because after waiting for such a long period, they are told that their loan is not approved due to lack of documentation. You can set an outer limit that they must process it by 30 days or 35 days, and confirm if the loan will be sanctioned or not.
