Kerala to object state banker’s committee’s recovery procedures on farmer loans

Agencies
June 24, 2019

Kochi, Jun 24: An advertisement from the State Level Banker's Committee (SLBC) that appeared in leading dailies in Kerala on Sunday has upset the government as it stated that recovery procedures on farmers loans will go ahead on defaulters.

Speaking to the media in Thiruvananthapuram, State Finance Minister Thomas Issac said this issue will be taken up strongly at the upcoming SLBC meeting to be held here on June 25.

"They have written off Rs 5 lakh crore of outstanding amount of the corporates, but have come out with rules against the farmers and are threatening with recovery procedures. It's not right to say that only paddy cultivation is classified under agricultural loans. If agricultural land means only paddy fields, then in Kerala it's just 15 per cent. We will raise this issue at the SLBC meeting very strongly," said Issac.

In 2019 alone, about two dozen farmers committed suicide after the banks strictly went ahead with recovery procedures even after the government had announced that due to the piquant situations faced by the state in terms of the worst ever floods last year, all loans taken by the farmers would get a moratorium till December 31, 2019.

At the SLBC Sub Committee on Natural Calamity (2018), one of the decisions taken was with regard to providing moratorium on agricultural loans and loans to those borrowers whose income is largely from agriculture and allied activities. The committee clarified that banks may permit moratorium to those loans pertaining to flood affected villages notified by the government, subject to the permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

However, in the advertisement, the SLBC said the RBI guidelines have to be followed by all banks and the moratorium ends on July 31.

State Agricultural Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said the state government will take up this issue with the Centre.

"We will meet the RBI officials on this and at Tuesday's meeting of SLBC, this is going to be taken up seriously. They now say that the moratorium ends on July 31, which is wrong. In fact, banks do have the right to extend the moratorium," said Kumar.

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News Network
May 18,2020

May 18: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced the date sheet for the pending class 10 and 12 board exams, which will now be held from July 1 to 15.

The exams were postponed due to the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The Class 10 board exams are pending only in the North East Delhi.

"The Class 10 exams will be staggered on four dates, starting July 1. The first paper will be Social Science, while the next day students will be required to appear for the Science exam,” said Sanyam Bhardwaj, the Controller of Examination, CBSE.

“On July 10, exams will be conducted for both courses of Hindi and on July 15 for both courses of English," he said.

On health guidelines for students, Bhardwaj said that they will be required to carry their own sanitiser bottles and wear masks to examination centres.

"Parents will have to ensure that their ward is not sick and candidates will have to strictly follow physical-distancing norms," he said.

For Class 12, the Home Science exam will be held on July 1, followed by both courses of Hindi the next day.

The Class 12 Business Studies exam has been scheduled for July 9, followed by Biotechnology on July 10 and Geography on July 11.

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Agencies
February 20,2020

Tirupur, Feb 20: Nineteen people died in a collision between a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus and a truck near Avinashi town of Tirupur district on Thursday morning here.

The bus was on its way to Ernakulam in Kerala from Bengaluru in Karnataka when the mishap occurred.

Deputy Tehsildar of Avinashi Town informed, "19 people that include 14 men and 5 women, died in the collision between the bus and the truck near Avinashi town."

The bodies have been taken to Tirupur government hospital.
Further details are awaited.

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Agencies
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: The government has further extended the deadline for bidding to buy its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the country's second-biggest oil refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), by over one-and-a-half months to July 31.

This is the second extension for submission of expression of interest (EoI) for BPCL stake by interested bidders. The government had first invited bids showing interest in buying its stake, by May 2. It was then extended till June 13.

This has now been extended to 5 p.m. on July 31 in "view of further requests received from the interested bidders and the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19", an official notice put up by disinvestment department DIPAM late on Tuesday said.

Accordingly, the last date for submission of written queries or preliminary information memorandum has been pushed back to June 23 from the earlier deadline of May 16.

The disinvestment in BPCL involves the government selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the company to a strategic investor with transfer of management control. The government has barred PSUs from bidding for BPCL and expects private sector Indian players and global MNCs to bid for its stake. The government's stake in BPCL is worth around Rs 50,000 crore.

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