NEW DELHI: Cutting across party lines, Rajya Sabha members on Tuesday grilled the Government on the high rate of interest charged from farmers on institutional loans, and demanded a full debate. They asked about the fate of the report submitted by the National Commission on Farmers, headed by M.S. Swaminathan, which recommended a four per cent interest on farm loans.

The concern was so unanimous that the latter half of question hour was suffused with supplementaries, forcing Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to give an assurance that the Government would consider the issue.

Earlier, replying to a query by Janardhan Poojary (Congress), Mr. Chidambaram said the Government should not interfere with the price mechanism of bank loans. "Unless the cost of inflation and the cost of administration of rural cooperative banks are reduced, banks will not be in a position to cut down the rate from nine per cent."

Be pro-active: Gill

While Sushma Swaraj (BJP) asked why the Government could not intervene when farmers were committing suicide, Sharad Yadav (JD-U) sought a time-bound reply and M.S. Gill (Congress) wanted it to be "pro-active."

V. Narayanasamy (Congress) said the interest on even institutional loans worked out to 14 per cent and would escalate to 24 per cent with compound interest. N. Jothi (AIADMK) sought a reduction of interest on loans for farm implements.

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