The Maharashtra Government has suspended the disbursal of funds under the farm loan waiver programme after several bank accounts of beneficiaries were found to have been linked to a single Aadhaar number.
The decision was taken to prevent disbursal of funds to holders of bogus accounts who may have availed of farm loans from various agencies before defaulting on these. “We are re-verifying the information submitted by farmers while applying for the farm loan waiver,” a senior official said.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that in some cases as many as 100 bank accounts were linked to the same Aadhaar number. Many belonged to small cooperative banks. At least one lakh of the total 8.5 lakh bank account-holders eligible for the loan waiver were found to have multiple numbers — putting into question the efficacy of the Aadhaar seeding exercise. Officials feel the error may have crept in during data entry by bank employees.
The Maharashtra Government was to disburse Rs 4,000 crore in the first phase by Diwali and the rest of the Rs 35,000-crore loan waiver by November-end. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the media that the entire list of eligible farmers would be re-verified by November 15 and the first phase of the loan waiver rolled out soon after.
He claimed that under the UPA government, funds had been handed over to those who had applied for the loan waiver without scrutiny. “We will do no such thing,” he said. “We will be allowing loan waiver only on the basis of the Aadhaar number. Accounts not linked will not be eligible. The loan waiver amount will not be handed over to the farmers directly. It would be credited to the farm loan account, ” officials explained.
SC to hear Mamata govt’s plea on monday
New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal Government has challenged the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes in the Supreme Court, which has listed it for hearing on Monday. The plea is listed for hearing before a Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan. Senior advocate and MP Kalyan Banerjee said the petition was filed earlier. He said the West Bengal Government has challenged the provision that says the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended without Aadhaar. On Wednesday, Mamata had also opposed the linking of Aadhaar with mobile phone number. PTI