Election Commission Should Not Allow Defaulters To Contest Polls

Chennai: Terming the political parties’ assurance in their manifestos to waive off education loans as undesirable, an apex banking body has urged the Election Commission to get an undertaking from poll candidates that they are not bank loan defaulters. A top official of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) asked the poll panel to notify that bank loan defaulters are ineligible to contest the ensuing elections. The AIBEA also said that loan defaulters should be made ineligible to hold any public office.

The union plans to file a public interest litigation (PIL) to declare that job reservation rules will become applicable for all public sector promoted companies. “Any loan waiver is not desirable as it will give a wrong signal to the borrowers,” C.H. Venkatachalam, AIBEA General Secretary, told on Monday. “But when the economy is not doing well and corporate loans are restructured, the education loans should also be restructured if a borrower is not able to get a job,” he added.

Venkatachalam said the EC should issue a notification and suitable guidelines that when the nomination papers are filed by the candidates, a declaration should be obtained that he/she and the companies in which they are having a stake and connections are not bank loan defaulters. (IANS)

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