One million bank accounts of Maharashtra farmers fake, won’t get loan waiver: Govt
Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said at least 1 million bank accounts of farmers are fake and will not get benefits of the loan waiver
Mumbai: Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said at least one million bank accounts of farmers are fake and will not get any benefit of the loan waiver.
The minister further claimed that most of these accounts were earlier opened by banks or credit societies for siphoning off the loan amount. When asked about the use of software for loan waiver assessments and farmers’ applications, Patil said, “As per the previous assessment, some 89 lakh farmers were expected to benefit out of the loan waiver scheme... Now, we have realized that some 10 lakh bank accounts of farmers are fake, most of them opened by banks or credit societies for siphoning off the loan amount. Now, with this new software, we are able to detect the true farmers who actually have some agricultural land and have availed some loan."
“The fake accounts have some information missing such as actual land area, supporting documents, bank account, among others. As the software demands detailed information, we came to know that some 10 lakh bank accounts are fake, hence they would not get any loan waiver benefits," Patil said Tuesday. Patil said that this issue could be politicized and government may face another round of criticism over the loan waiver issue.
He said, “Earlier, such fake accounts were regularly used for availing loan. With state government’s intervention, we want to fix such leakages in our system. Hence we have taken such tough decision. The government is keen on helping genuine farmers."
The Maharashtra government had in June announced a farm loan waiver of Rs34,000 crore.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!