Corruption allegations have marred the farm loan waiver scheme with the State government being accused of handing over the online loan application process to a private company without issuing tenders.
Raju Shetti, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana MP said, “Instead of handing the job to a State-owned company, a Nagpur-based private company was roped in. The Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty Kaustubh Dhavase and IT Secretary Vijay Kumar Gautam are involved in handing over the contract without issuing tenders.”
Mr. Shetti claimed that the company, Innowave IT Infrastructure, had no prior experience in handling online applications.
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He said, “Anomalies such as the Aadhaar card numbers and bank account numbers of farmers ending up being identical led to the rejection of many online applications. All this was a result of the company’s faulty software. Data of farmers such as their income, loans taken, number of land holdings and Aadhaar card details are with the private company and they can be used for wrongdoing.”
The Nationalist Congress Party has also alleged that the process was digitised just to mint money through IT companies. NCP’s chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “This is a new method of corruption by this government.”
The CMO, however, denied the allegations, by saying that “the news is factually wrong.”
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