‘Writing off bad loans a ploy to siphon off taxpayers’ money’

AAP on Monday termed as “a ploy to siphon off the tax payers’ money” the reported writing off of bad loans of public sector banks and demanded disclosure of the names of the “rogue industrialists” and a probe into the matter. The party was reacting to a report of bad loans worth Rs 1.14 lakh crore being written off during 2013-2015. “When farmers in Bundelkhand are dying because of drought, how can loans worth Rs 1.14 lakh crore be written off? It should be made clear to which rogue industrialists these loans were given. There should be a systematic probe into this,” AAP leader Ashutosh said. The party also raised concern over the State Bank of India (SBI), country’s biggest PSU bank, having the highest amount of bad loans. AAP’s Delhi unit convener Dilip Pandey questioned how did the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allow writing off the loans without ascertaining the names of the beneficiaries.