Karnataka launches helpline to support borrowers in financial distress
Bengaluru: The All-India Financial Borrowers Federation (AIFBF), in partnership with the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), has launched a helpline to support borrowers facing financial distress, particularly farmers and daily wage labourers.
The helpline, accessible by dialling 080-45888789, offers psychological counselling and financial advice for borrowers in distress. Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao inaugurated the service by making the first call, The New Indian Express reported on Saturday.
According to data shared by AIFBF, an estimated 14 farmers take their lives every day across India due to debt-related distress. The organisation said it hopes the helpline will serve as a timely intervention to prevent such tragedies.
In addition, AIFBF has reportedly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging reforms to make borrowing more inclusive and borrower-friendly. The suggestions include empowering women entrepreneurs and startups, strengthening the Make in India initiative, boosting India’s GDP, and curbing non-performing assets and farmer suicides.
FKCCI president M.G. Balakrishna expressed gratitude to AIFBF for facilitating the discussion. “Borrowers or not, they are taxpayers and nation-builders. We believe in building an ecosystem where borrowers are respected; they are an asset to this nation,” TNIE quoted Balakrishna as saying.
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BJP has history of ‘contradictory alliances’, says BK Hariprasad
Bengaluru: Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad has launched a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing the party of hypocrisy over its criticism of alliance politics in Tamil Nadu.
In a post on X on Friday, Hariprasad said BJP leader B. L. Santhosh criticising the Congress party’s alliance politics in Tamil Nadu was “not just laughable, but the height of political contradiction.”
He said the Congress has always joined hands with like-minded parties to protect secular and democratic values in the country.
Hariprasad questioned the BJP over several of its past and present alliances across the country. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar and Maharashtra, he accused the BJP of sharing power with parties it had earlier criticised.
He alleged that the BJP had aligned with separatist and corruption-linked political forces in different states for political gains.
“The BJP, which speaks against alliances today, should first look at its own political history,” he said, adding that the party’s record was full of “contradictions and changing stands.”
Hariprasad also accused the BJP of using central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI as political tools to target opposition leaders, topple governments and influence electoral mandates.
He further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu had strongly rejected the BJP and its ideology in the recent election.
“Congress forms alliances to protect the Constitution, secularism and national unity, while the BJP enters into alliances only for power,” he said.
