NAKHON SAWAN, 21 February 2014 Rice growers in Nakhon Sawan protested against the Government Savings Bank (GSB) for its cancellation of inter-bank lending to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), withdrawing their savings from the GSB and depositing the money at the BAAC instead.
The continuous withdrawal by customers of the Government Savings Bank since the beginning of the week has agitated some rice growers, who viewed that the GSB did not care to assist the farmers who have yet to be paid under the rice mortgage program.
On Thursday, around 100 farmers from several districts in Nakhon Sawan staged a protest in front of the GSB branch in the province. They took turns making speeches attacking GSB staff who were donning black clothes to work to express their opposition to the GSB’s earlier lending approval to the BAAC that has since been cancelled.
Some of the farmers then went inside to withdraw all of their savings from their GSB accounts so the money can be deposited at the BAAC instead. They also declared they would persuade people in their locales to close their accounts with the GSB.
