Drive against loan sharks changed people’s impression about police: CM Bhupendra Patel

Later on, police organised loan melas (fairs) and thus facilitated meetings among those wanting to avail loans and representatives of banks. The Chief Minister said that the need for the campaign was felt after complaints of exploitation started piling up from big cities and even small villages.

“Common man needs money for business and trade, in times of difficulties and we get trapped in the vicious cycle of interest. Every person always makes efforts for the welfare of his, his family, for the good education of his children and when faced with difficulty, avails loan at interest rates three times higher than a businessman would hesitate to take even if doing so means loss,” Patel said.

“There prevailed a situation wherein after falling in this trap, they keep ringing you up constantly, wouldn’t allow you and your family to breathe easy even after repaying the principal amount and due interest on it. As such complaints were piling up, police launched this campaign,” he added.

The CM handed over cheques of loan disbursement among the beneficiaries. (Express Photo)

Rajkot city police commissioner Raju Bhargav had organised a lok darbar on January 10 where 60 people had filed complaints.

Subsequently, police had filed 59 FIRs against private money lenders and 74 money lenders were arrested. On February 15, the city police organised a loan fair where 1,500 people wanting loans had turned up. Out of them, applications of 1,284 were accepted and subsequently, various banks sanctioned Rs 3.45 crore worth of loans.

They include Rs.195 crore worth of loan advanced to 1,246 applicants under the PM SvaNidhi Yojana, Rs 70.50 lakh loan to 15 beneficiaries under MUDRA loan scheme, Rs 30.74 lakh worth of gold loans to six beneficiaries, Rs 10.55 lakh worth of personal loan to five beneficiaries, Rs 17.40 lakh worth of agricultural loan to three farmers and Rs 21 lakh worth of housing loan to two beneficiaries.

The CM handed over cheques of loan disbursement among the beneficiaries in the presence of Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel and Women and Child Development Minister Bhanu Babariya.

Addressing the beneficiaries, the CM said the police’s campaign had helped overhaul police’s “impression” among common people.

“I congratulate the police force for the active manner in which they have taken up this task and have strived to help the maximum number of people. Otherwise, you know well how one feels when police knock on your doors. But this campaign has yielded two benefits. Firstly, people have been saved from difficulties and secondly, it has changed the perception of police among common men,” he said.

CM said that the government was committed to welfare of small-time traders through PM SVANidhi, which, he said, is popularly known as Modi loan.

The CM also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the history of development politics created by Modi has the welfare of common people at its core. “The Prime Minister has always strived to ensure that the poorest join the mainstream, that no one is left out of the development (process) and that no one becomes a victim of exploitation,” he said.