CHENNAI: The State unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) will stage demonstrations in front of State and Central Government offices in all districts, barring Madurai, on June 26, demanding hassle-free disbursal of crop loan to farmers and education loan to students.

State CPI secretary D. Pandian told reporters here on Thursday that though Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced in his budget speech that agriculture was on top of the agenda and Rs.2,25,000 crore would be set aside for farm credit for 2007-2008, banks had been denying crop loan to farmers "in the absence of any clear guideline." Though the sorry state of affairs was brought to the notice of the Finance Minister, remedial measures were not taken, he alleged.

Similarly, banks had denied students education loan though Mr. Chidambaram had been stating that there should be no problem in disbursement of the loan without any precondition, such as collateral security. The bank authorities had been arguing that they had not received any direction in this regard, Mr.Pandian said.

Flaying the Centre for its decision to import 50 lakh tonnes of wheat, he said scarcity of food grains was artificially created to suit the speculative market. He urged the Centre to take effective steps to arrest the price rise and inflation, as its foreign exchange reserve was in a comfortable position. Procurement price of paddy should be fixed as Rs.1,000 per quintal, he said.

Workers in Malaysia

Mr. Pandian urged the Centre to take immediate steps through diplomatic channels to ensure the safe return of over 20,000 Tamil workers in Malaysia who had been treated as "bonded labourers." Around 5,000 Tamils had been detained in the prisons of Malaysia without trial for over five years. The CPI activists would stage a demonstration before the Malaysian High Commission in Chennai shortly, he said.

He sought the Centre's intervention to make Karnataka honour the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final award to help farmers in the delta to take up kuruvai cultivation.

The CPI would campaign for the Congress candidate in the Madurai (West) Assembly by-election, he said.

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