Congress urges CM KCR to abolish loan apps

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leader and AICC spokesperson Dr Dasoju Sravan has demanded Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to immediately abolish online loan apps which have been committing 'brutal atrocities, unbearable harassment' and 'resorting to illegal practices', even leading to suicides of many innocent people.

Sravan wrote an open letter to KCR on Wednesday, exposing the murky web of illegal online loan apps and urged him to set up a special task force to crackdown on all online loan apps and ensure that they are shut down. He urged the government to ensure that only those online loan apps, which have a valid NBFC registration and RBI approval, are hosted on Google Play Store, Apple Store and other app-hosting platforms.

"Illegal online loan apps charge interest, from 30 to even an unbelievable 200 per cent, and collect more than double and triple amounts in many cases, citing various reasons. As most of the apps are illegal and not registered, they resort to immoral practices and fleece people. They are morphing pictures of women who availed loans and posting their nude pictures on social media. Recovery agents, who are mostly rowdy sheeters, goondas are attacking the residences of borrowers. Due to the harassment of online apps, several people have committed suicide. These online apps have been operating as mafia organizations, rather than as fintech companies," Sravan stated.

He demanded the government to bring in a policy to ensure that public and private sector banks mandatorily give loans to small, medium, micro enterprises, middle class salaried professionals, needy from lower income groups like roadside vendors, hawkers, street vendors, and new entrepreneurs to save them from clutches of unscrupulous online loan apps and money-lenders.