'Maha to adopt Andhra pattern of loan waiver implementation'

The Maharashtra government will adopt Andhra Pradesh pattern of loan waiver implementation to plug systemic corruption and ensure that the fruits of debt waiver reach actual beneficiaries, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said today.
The minister also challenged the Opposition parties to take a similar decision in states where they are in power.
"We will adopt the Andhra pattern to avoid corruption and misuse of tax payers money. A digital platform will be adopted to transfer the money.
"Hence, there will be less chances of misuse of money that has to be transferred to the farmers," Mungantiwar told reporters here.
Taking a dig at the Congress which claimed that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced fake figures of beneficiaries, the finance minister said, "Does the Congress have the courage to take a historical decision of loan waiver. If they do, let them announce and implement in Karnataka and Punjab where they are in power."

He added that the audit department had raised objection over the 2008 debt waiver scheme brought by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led UPA government.

"The Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) had slammed the then union government for misuse of the debt waiver scheme and had stated that the money did not reach farmers," Mungantiwar said.
Meanwhile, Minister for Marketing Subhash Deshmukh, will be appointed as the head of the committee on implementation of the loan waiver scheme in the next few days.
"In the next few days, government auditors will begin the work of scrutinising names of beneficiaries of the Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Yojana, the loan waiver scheme," the minister said.

He added that his team will complete the task in the next one-and-half months and soon after that, the money will be transferred to their accounts.