CM Fadnavis asks bankers to iron out loan waiver glitches

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday held an urgent meeting with officials of the State Level Banking Committee (SLBC) about glitches in implementation of the farm loan waiver scheme in Maharashtra. Informed about confusion over information shared by banks with the state regarding farmers’ debts, the CM called a meeting of SLBC with senior ministers and officers to iron out the problems.

During the meeting, a few incidents were brought to the CM’s notice where one Aadhaar number had been used by six farmers; another by 11 farmers; and a third by 110 farmers. Even the cooperative department was unaware of the exact number of such cases. Other than Aadhaar, there was a mismatch between information given by the banks and that filed by farmers. The cooperative department was working towards matching the data and then clearing the claims. In certain cases, banks had even provided data of two different loan accounts for a single farmer.

Taking serious note of these anomalies, the CM asked banks to be careful while working with the data. “Farmers’ accounts with accurate information should get benefits from Thursday. Banks will tread with caution wherever there is confusion. Banks should see to it that misuse of the scheme is strictly avoided,” he said. He asked banks to take help from the information and technology department of the state government to clear technical issues as soon as possible.

After the meeting, cooperative minister Subhash Deshmukh informed that by Thursday, actual transfer of money to farmers’ loan accounts would begin. The state government had cleared a list of 8.5 lakh farmers in the first phase of the loan waiver, which was supposed to start by October 18. However, due to technical issues and the Diwali holidays, farmers had still not got the benefits.

Mr Deshmukh said, “Issues of data confusion are related with banks. Farmers have given correct information. Therefore, these technical issues will be sorted out on a war footing. We will discuss about action against the guilty later but for now, our priority is to waive off farmers’ loans.”

 He added that the CM had assured every truly needy farmer would get the benefits of the scheme.