Farm debt waiver scheme implemented in "shoddy" manner: PAC

Punching holes in the Rs 65,000 crore farm debt waiver scheme, a Parliamentary committee today said it was implemented in a "shoddy" manner and the financial services department should find out the reasons for its failure and expeditiously punish erring officials.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its report said that despite the laudable intention, the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008, was implemented in a "shoddy manner... This is unfortunate, to say the least."
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) should "reflect seriously and find out the reasons for the scheme failure and also to remedy the wrongs done..." said the report which was tabled in Parliament today.

The report of the PAC, headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, said the debt waiver scheme did not achieve the intended goals due to various reasons including errors of inclusion and exclusion of beneficiary, poor and inadequate documentation and tempering of records.
It regretted that loans were reimbursement to Micro Finance Institution (MFIs) in violation of the guidelines and in several cases the benefit did not reach eligible farmers. Also there was ineffective monitoring of the implementation of the scheme.
The government in February 2008 came out with the farm debt waiver scheme to provide relief to the farmers and improve flow of credit to the farm sector with a view to enhance agriculture production and productivity.

The scheme cost the exchequer about Rs 65,300 crore and is estimated to have benefited 3.69 crore farmers.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which had scrutinised the implementation of the scheme, too had pointed out various anomalies in the implementation of the scheme.