Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here today said bankers need to be more sensitive to the plight of farmers as he expressed anguish over the spurt in cases of farmers' suicides.
He alleged that bankers have been adamant and have shown the state government in bad light despite the government "extending" the debt redemption scheme and infusing capital for the welfare of farmers in the state.
"Andhra Pradesh cannot have farmer suicides. We need to be sensitive to their problems. Lack of viability of commercial crops and defunct pumpsets are some of the main reasons. We need to bring down debts and for this, we need co-operation of bankers. Every farmer should be able to carry out farming without debts," he said at the state level bankers' meeting.
The Chief Minister said that despite farmers paying their premiums, bankers are not able to insure their crops.
He also expressed dissatisfaction with bankers lagging in technological advancement and sought information on how many banks do not have core banking solutions and why they had not digitised their data completely.
He directed bankers, the finance department and the planning department to hold a monthly meeting to sort out all the problems faced by bankers, stating that there are gaps in the system.
He told bankers to shun their "business as usual" approach and use an analytical approach by identifying performance indicators, stating that AP's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had risen above the country's GDP.
