The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a CBI probe into the irregularities revealed by the government auditor in the farm loan waiver scheme.
BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said nearly 34 lakh eligible farmers were denied their right to debt waiver and more than 24 lakh ineligible people benefited from the “massive scam.” The number of ineligible beneficiaries was likely to increase as the Comptroller and Auditor-General had checked only 90,000 of the 3.5 crore accounts.
“Even with this small sample, the CAG has found out that 13 per cent of the eligible farmers were not considered by the lending institutions… Furthermore, 8.5 per cent of the ineligible beneficiaries got an undue windfall profit. There may be many who may not be even farmers,” he said.
Mr. Javadekar demanded that all eligible farmers be given the benefit based on the outstanding as of March 31.
The original scheme, he argued, was flawed as many small and marginal farmers who borrowed from moneylenders received no benefit at all as they were excluded from the scheme.
“What is shocking is that some of the micro finance institutions, through not eligible, got the benefit. The CAG has come across cases of tampering, overwriting and alterations, which all amount to a fraud, and therefore a scam,” the BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
