New Delhi: In a bizarre case reported from Hassan in Karnataka a farmer and a nationalised bank are at loggerheads. The matter relates to an unpaid loan from Canara Bank, which the farmer availed some time ago.
Bank insists on payment of Rs 9.34
According to a report in TV9 Kannada, the farmer identified as Chokkanna Gowda, went to Canara Bank’s Sakleshpur branch after he got a message regarding an unpaid loan. The loan amount however was Rs 9.34.
The man argued that he was being harassed by bank officials despite being a regular customer. He said that he held an account with the Canara Bank for the past 15-20 years. Despite this, Gowda said that when he came seeking a loan from the same bank again, he was asked to first pay up the outstanding loan amount of Rs 9.34. He said that officials at the bank told him that any of his future requests would only be entertained if he paid up his previous outstanding loan amount.
The man then went ahead and paid Rs 10 to the bank. But the amount he filled in the slip of the bank was Rs 9.34, the exact amount that he had been asked to return to the bank. He then asked the Canara Bank officials to return to him the remaining change of 66 paise.
Bank troubling poor farmer like me: Gowda
Following the bizarre request to the bank, Gowda went ahead and talked about his experience at the nationalised bank with the media. He alleged that the bank was harassing a poor farmer like him for such a small amount of money. This, while several rich people have taken crores of rupees from the bank on loan and never repaid them. He alleged that the bank was not acting against such fraudsters.