In a first among the many farm loan waivers implemented in the State, a de-weeding exercise to identify real beneficiaries found that 3.3 lakh farmers had provided non-existent Aadhaar or ration card numbers to seek benefits.
While 1.9 lakh farmers were found to have provided fake Aadhaar and ration cards numbers in the commercial bank category, the number was about 1.4 lakh in the cooperative sector.
Without due diligence by the authorities, the State government would have spent an additional ₹5,000 crore on the scheme. “In the past, the waiver amount would just go to the accounts without verification. There was neither a check before the money transfer nor a post-transfer audit. This time, the taxpayers’ money was spent with utmost care, benefiting only the genuine beneficiaries,” an official said.
The ambitious scheme of the JD(S)-Congress coalition, in the end, is expected to cost the State exchequer around ₹18,000 crore, benefiting nearly 27 lakh farmers in both the commercial and cooperative banking sectors.
For the scheme to be efficient, farmers had been asked to provide their Aaadhar and ration card numbers, along with land records. Sources in the government said that in a large number of cases, village accountants — over a three-month exercise — found that many of the farmers were not living in the address given.
“In some cases, loans were very old and we believe the farmers might have moved out. But in Haveri, to our surprise, 30% of the beneficiaries claimed that they did not have a ration card. We had to seek the help of the Food and Civil Supplies Department to get ration card numbers,” a senior official said. “The ration card is a crucial document to arrive at the definition of a family, so that the family does not get more benefit than entailed.”
Clean accounts
Of the nearly 22 lakh crop loan accounts across 6,500 commercial bank branches in the State, nine lakh were initially found to be clean, meeting all conditions. “Subsequently, 12 lakh accounts became eligible for the scheme after farmers submitted documents. As many as 4.3 lakh farmers were found to have loan accounts both in the commercial and cooperative sectors, thus becoming eligible for ₹1 lakh loan waiver in the cooperative sector instead of having both,” a source said
Meanwhile, the authorities also found that nearly one lakh accounts in the cooperative sector were duplicates, which meant data had been entered multiple times. They also found that 1.86 lakh account holders in cooperative sector had not repaid interest, which is mandatory to become eligible for loan waiver. “These accounts also did not qualify to be beneficiary accounts,” the source said.