Technical glitch, not 'scam' in Maharashtra farm loans waivers: Officials

Facing flak for alleged bungling in Maharashtra's ongoing farm loans waiver scheme implementation, top state officials said on Thursday dismissed claims there was a scam, saying that there was only "a technical glitch" which had slowed the process.

Amidst reports that a few dozen farmers and their families had submitted a single Aadhaar Card number to avail more than the prescribed waiver limits of Rs 150,000, Maharashtra Cooperatives Commissioner Vijay Zade dismissed the contentions.

"As per the procedure, we are preparing a Green List of all eligible beneficiaries under the farm loans waiver scheme. As per the list, the state government will credit the money to the banks concerned after they write off the beneficiary farmer's old outstanding dues according to the norms," Zade told IANS.

Effectively, no farmer will get any money in their bank accounts, but their outstanding loans would be written off by their banks, which would submit their claim for reimbursement to the state government, he said.

"Till date, not a single claim has been received by us from any of the banks, so where is the question of giving any money to the farmers? The government has already released an amount of Rs 4,000 crore and it is lying in our bank account, anybody can verify it," Zade said.

The state government's Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission Chairman Kishore Tiwari said after the banks write off the old loans of the eligible farmers, they would be given a certificate declaring them "debt-free" which would entitle them to fresh bank credit from April 2018 onwards.

Both Zade and Tiwari countered suggestions of a "scam" in the implementation of the farm loans waiver scheme where not a single rupee will exchange hands, as repeatedly mentioned by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"For all practical purposes, this means only a credit entry in the banks' books and outstanding loans of up to Rs 150,000 stand paid off retrospectively by the banks. Then, the beneficiaries shall be issued 'No Dues Certificate' entitling them to avail fresh agricultural loans," Tiwari added.

However, Zade admitted that the problem of a single Aadhaar Card number for many applicant-farmers has been detected, but attributed it to discrepancies in feeding the data in the software which is designed by the state IT Department, to automatically reject any such duplicate entries.

On Wednesday, Fadnavis held a meeting with the bankers and the IT Department officials, which pointed out these glitches, and directed the banks to check and rectify it on a war footing, he said.

The Chief Minister had on October 18 kicked off the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana, 2017 which proposed to write off loans of over six million farmers, estimated to be around Rs 34,000 crore.

--IANS

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