In presence of Akhilesh, farmer claims banks recovering waived loan amount from accounts

SP president Akhilesh Yadav today presented before the media a farmer, who claimed that banks were recovering the amount written off under the crop loan waiver scheme from the accounts of some beneficiaries, a charge promptly denied by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Gaurav Chaudhary, the farmer from Meerut district, said some farmers in his Jamalpur village had benefited from the crop loan waiver scheme announced by the state government.

But he claimed that banks were now recovering the waived amount from the accounts of some of the beneficiaries.

"A farmer who had received about Rs 65,000 in sugarcane dues in his account found that Rs 58,692 have been deducted. The passbook has the entry of the recovery," he told reporters.

Chaudhary said when he contacted the bank manager, he told him that there were at least six farmers in his village from whom the loan amount was "recovered" in this manner.

When contacted, Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi said no such recovery was being done.

Shahi said the state government had waived farm loans as per the data provided by the banks. He, however, said it's possible that banks may be rectifying any error at their end.

"If there's any case of loan being wrongly recovered from farmers, they can complain and an inquiry will be done," he stressed.

Soon after coming to power last year, the Yogi Adityanath government had decided to waive farm loans. The decision was estimated to benefit more than 2.15 lakh farmers.