'Iron fist needed': Congress slams Centre for 'weakening banking system'

The Opposition party has urged that the Centre handle fraudsters with an 'iron fist'

 

New Delhi [India], June 1 (ANI): Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh on Monday hit out at the Centre alleging that the failure of the Central government in controlling the COVID-19 situation in the country dealt a heavy blow to the economy.

Vallabh alleged that the Central government has "weakened the banking system" in the country.

This comes days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said: "The March 2021 round of the Reserve Bank's consumer confidence survey (CCS) showed a worsening consumer sentiment on the back of deteriorating sentiments on general economic situation, income and prices."

In a press conference, Vallabh said, "One of the important parts of the RBI Annual Report was the data around cases of bank frauds. The cases and amount of bank frauds have been on a rapid rise since 2014-15. In the year 2020-21 alone, the total amount of fraud was Rs 1.38 lakh crore. Although, the RBI and other agencies have tried to portray the fraud numbers for 2020-21 as declining from 2019-20, there is another side to the story."

The Congress leader raised three questions to the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said: "We have three questions for the Modi government: First, why has the government failed to curb the bank frauds in the last seven years? Second, what is the government doing to recover the amount involved in these bank frauds? And third, how much amount has been collected from these fraudsters who are weakening our banking system?"

Vallabh added, "the Modi government has weakened the banking system by allowing the fraudsters to either continue functioning in the country or leave the country without making any efforts to recover the fraud amounts. It has also not provided enough capital support to the banks."

"The Congress party urges that the government should handle these fraudsters with an iron fist and make sure that the entire amount, that belongs to our nation, be recovered as soon as possible," the spokesperson said.