VIJAYAWADA: Financial education, increasing of institutional finance and working of banks with a human face were some of the solutions for eliminating the Call Money problem, observed various stake-holders in a workshop on Call Money – Stock Taking and Way Forward, in Vijayawada on Tuesday. City police commissioner Gautam Sawang initiated social awareness on call money issue and organised the workshop, in which people from various sectors including banking, financial institutions, women welfare organisations, NGOs, advocates, victims of call money, senior citizens, various social organisations participated.
There is an urgent need for financial literacy among the citizens to avoid blindly taking money from the lenders by signing on valuable documents, observed the first Indian Forest Service officer and adviser to the state government Ms Rama Lakshmi. She explained that values are deteriorating in informal lending practices and there should be some diagnosis for it. Mr Sawang assured that they would not allow any political interference on the call money issue, when Ms Durga Bhavani, an activist, raised doubts over the politicians’ involvement in the crime.
The term call money did not represent the actual problem facing by the victims in the city, observed Mr Y. Harish Chandra Prasad, chairman of Malaxmi Group. Bezawada Bar Association member Jaya Raj observed that there was no need to bother about the acts and laws weather they are there or not, but one should take moral responsibility to fight against call money as it has socio-economic implications. In all, 1,232 cases were booked after the first case broke in the city in 2015, said Mr Sawang. He also revealed that there were 60 false cases registered out of the 1,232 cases.
