Admitting irregularities to the tune of Rs.230 crore in the execution of the farm loan waiver scheme, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said it was mostly up to the banks to sympathetically consider the claims of farmers who got excluded from getting the benefit then.
Replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Chidambaram told Prakash Javadekar (BJP) and Naresh Agrawal (SP) that in a scheme of this magnitude when loans were waived in 2008-09 errors of exclusion and inclusion were unavoidable.
Avoiding a categorical answer, he said banks were asked to sympathetically consider the claims of farmers on the basis of “what can be done now.” He was sorry for the farmers who got excluded but added “whatever help can be given, can be given at this stage.”
He said errors of exclusion and inclusion were natural in a scheme that involved 3.73 crore beneficiary accounts spread over one lakh bank branches through which Rs. 52,259-crore debts were waived.
While enquiries by the RBI and Nabard were under way, so far they had detected irregularities in respect of 3,36,156 accounts involving Rs, 230 crore.
The probe was taken up in the light of the CAG report exposing irregularities in waiving debt.
Of the 1.85-crore cases given to it for inspection, the RBI verified 1.76-crore accounts, detecting 56,322 cases of errors involving an amount of Rs. 98.97 crore.
Nabard verified 1.72-crore accounts out of 1.88-crore accounts, detecting 2,80,194 irregularities involving Rs. 131.70 crore.
Mr. Chidambaram said action was being taken in all these cases of irregularities, right from disciplinary action to recovery and action against auditors and lodging of criminal cases. None would be spared, he added.
