It should have happened a long time ago. The arrest of IDBI
bank officials, including the former chairman, for giving
Kingfisher Airlines a Rs 900 crore loan when it was still
struggling to repay earlier loans, was long overdue. The, so
called restructuring loan, was given without proper approval
and apparently rushed through to benefit Vijay Mallya, who
fled to the UK when things got too hot for him in India. While
it’s good to keep the focus on Mallya, the Union Finance Ministry
must not lose sight of the mountain of bad loans piled
by banks, many of which were granted under dubious circumstances.
The country’s banks have over Rs 9 lakh crore in bad
loans and nothing is being done to catch crooked bankers who
allowed it to happen. Greater scrutiny from the RBI, Centre
and investigating agencies is the need of the hour.
