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US senators support move against blocking WB funds to India

Two United States senators for the first time joined some members of the House of Representatives who have launched a campaign against the Clinton administration's opposition to the grant of World Bank loans for India's infrastructural projects which has resulted in the non-disbursement of 1.23 billion dollars.

The US began opposing the World Bank funding to India as part of the sanctions it had imposed in protest against its May 1998 nuclear tests. The senators -- Sam Brownback and Connie Mack (both Republican) -- in a joint letter last night, urged President Bill Clinton to extend his waiver authority to one of the most important forms of financial assistance to India: the provisions of loans by the international financial institutions for all ''non-basic'' human needs.

''These loans are critically needed by India to develop its infrastructure and to sustain economic activities in rural areas where the population mostly consists of India's poorest people,'' it added. It said the administration, by blocking these funds, was inadvertently harming the long-term economic interests of the US.

UNI

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