Tiruchirappalli, June 21: Union Minister of State for Communications S Thirunavukkarasar today asked the Tamil Nadu government to strictly implement the recently introduced anti-usury law and take stringent action against those found lending money at high interest rates. Welcoming the ordinance, which aimed at putting an end to usurious money lending, he told reporters here that it would save people from the clutches of avaricious persons.

On June 10, Tamil Nadu Governor, P S Ramamohan Rao had promulgated the ordinance, providing for a prison term of three years and a fine of Rs 30,000, to those who charged exorbitant rate of interest for loans. Declining to comment on DMK president M Karunanidhi's demand for a probe into the treatment given by All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi and the corporate Apollo Hospital here to his nephew and Union Minister Murasoli Maran, now undergoing treatment in the USA, Thirunavukkarasar offered good wishes and prayers for Maran's speedy recovery.

Bureau Report