Days after a sanitation worker from Maharashtra asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to write off his loan just like they did with former liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s, a similar appeal was made by a farmer in Karnataka. 

Sudhakar, son of a farmer in Maddak taluk in Mysuru, wrote to the bank manager of  Shivapura branch of SBI, to waive his loan of Rs 7 lakh at the earliest. There had been reports that stated that the bank has written off loans amounting to Rs 7000 Crore, including that of Vijay Mallya’s. 

Sudhakar told The New Indian Express that the loan was taken in the period of 2005-2006. 

“When bankers can waive crores of rupees loans taken by Vijaya Mallya, why can’t they waive the loans taken by farmers,” he said. 

“More than 80 percent of the loan amount had been used for agriculture and the remaining money was used for personal things. Rs 4.91 lakh tractor loan, Rs 40,000 crop loan and other loans are due for over a decade and bank people have been harassing me by sending notices to clear the loan,” he was quoted as saying.

Pointing out that issues including crop failure and drought makes it difficult for the farmers to pay back their loans, he said that the banks should waive off farmer loans to ease the trouble.

Industrialist Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9000 Crore to many Indian banks. He left the country a day after thirteen banks, led by State Bank of India moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in March this year. The CBI had recently initiated extradition request to bring Vijay Mallya back to India from the United Kingdom.