NK's Post

Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...
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Behind Bank Nationalisation

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Indira Gandhi and PN Kaksar, the two architects of bank nationalisation in 1969

The architects of bank nationalisation - Indira Gandhi and PN Haksar. Pic credit Nehru Memorial

NK SINGH

Soon after the Indian Government nationalised 14 private banks on 19 July 1969, I interviewed CPI leader NK Krishnan for Frontier. Here are excerpts from the interview:

Seventyfive big business houses control the nation’s economy. The monopolists command the distribution of credit resources through their control over banks. Only three percent of the total shareholders are in possession of 49 percent shares in the banks.

A study of 20 leading banks reveals that only 118 persons served as directors on their boards. And these 118 held 1,452 directorships of industries numbering 1,100 all over the country.

According to NK Krishnan, a Communist economist whom I interviewed, monopolists use bank deposits to further their business interests through their control over banks. This monopoly led to neglect of medium and small scale industries and economically backward regions.

What have the banks done for the development of agriculture? Reserve Bank bulletins show that in the period 1951-65 investments of private sectors banks in the industrial sector increased from 31.5 percent to 61.5 percent. During the same period their investment in the agricultural sector came down from 2.2 percent to 2 percent.

Private sector banks concentrated their business in three States only – Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Rs 325 crore were channelized from other States to these three States. Thus, private sector banks were not giving much chance to economically backward regions like Bihar to develop.

Excerpts from Frontier, 16 August 1969

Frontier 16 August 1969

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