He thought Rs-6,500 loan would save him, it landed him in jail

He thought Rs-6,500 loan would save him, it landed him in jail
MANOJ PRASAD

RANCHI, JULY 21: Ever since Durga Munda (55) was thrown into Ranchi's Birsa Munda jail in April for failing to repay a bank loan, he hasn't been able to meet his wife or two children. Not that he's complaining: he knows that they are starved for money and have little knowledge of Ranchi outside their tiny hut in a remote village 50 kms away.

The loan that Durga took to step out of poverty's shadow has sunk him into further debt. Durga was jailed on April 25 for failing to repay a Rs-6,500 loan he had taken from the Bihar state co-operative Land Development Bank (LDB) on April 16, 1979. ``I took the loan to buy a water pump, but I couldn't repay the amount,'' he says. ``I sold my oxen and two goats for Rs 150 which I gave the bank last year. But the bank's dues of Rs 8,700, including the interest, have still not been cleared,'' he said.

Along with Durga, there are nine other such prisoners of poverty at the jail, tribals who have been jailed between April 4 and June 27, all for non-payment of loans varying between Rs 4,500 and Rs 8,500 under the Civil Procedure Code and Section 38 of the Bihar Revenue Recovery Act 1914. The accused could get up to six months in custody if they don't arrange for bail in the High Court. A luxury these impoverished tribals cannot dream of.

However, the system has been kinder to the big defaulters who owe the bank far greater amounts. Seven residents of Ranka block in Garhwa District -- Dharmraj Kunwar, Mathura Singh, Ganeshan Singh, Ram Prakash Tiwari, Shyam Narayan Singh, Vinay Sahu and Nizamuddin Ansari who owe LDB Rs 1.26 lakh, Rs 2.60 lakh, Rs 1.84 lakh, Rs 1.04 lakh, Rs 2.36 lakh, Rs 1.68 lakh and Rs 1.20 lakh respectively -- walk free. Explained LDB's South Chotanagpur regional manager Ramasish Prasad, who is spearheading the loan recovery campaign in this region: ``We have invoked the Act against them as well. But they had separately moved the High Court against us.''

Set up in 1957 to provide agriculturists with long term credit, the LDB, run by the state cooperative department and funded by the National Agriculture Bank for Rural Development (NABARD), has reasons to book its defaulters. NABARD had stopped funding it in 1998. With establishment costs running into Rs 22.5 crore per annum and a 2,250-strong workforce, the LDB has 271 branches in Bihar.

Over Rs 900 crore disbursed among 68,850 agriculturists during 1963-98 are listed as `bad assets'. Its workforce doesn't even get their monthly salaries on time. ``We are yet to get our April salary. The department releases the salaries from the amount recovered from the defaulters,'' said Prasad.

The campaign has made the LDB realise Rs 30 lakh; in the bargain, it has jailed 110 defaulters like Durga in Ranchi and others in Gumla, Lohardaga, Palamau, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa and Jamshedpur since April 8, the day the collectors of these districts, acting on a directive by NABARD and South Chotanagpur Divisional Commissioner Phul Singh vested the LDB managers with powers to invoke the Act.

This legalese is alien to the world that Durga belongs to, the Tirla village where his wife Singi Devi (52) and children Sonratra Munda (15) and Chhaddu Mundain (18) wait for him to be be released. All that they possess is in and around their two-room hut: a pair of bulls, 12 cocks and hens, aluminium utensils, a sack of rice containing husk and vegetables. And money? A tattered five rupee note is tied to Singi's saree. ``We don't know where the jail is. We don't have money. Will you take us to him (Durga)?'' Chhaddu asks this reporter.