Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday said that a direction has been issued to the department concerned to take immediate legal action against those who are said to have “misused” an amount of ₹140 crore that was in the District Central Co-operative (DCC) bank in Kalaburagi.
He was replying to a delegation headed by MLA for Sedam Rajkumar Patil during his Janata Darshan programme at Chandraki village on Friday. Many activists were heart shouting about the injustice outside the venue.
Mr. Telkur brought to the CM’s notice that Sedam was first taken up during the implementation of the farm loan waiver scheme in the State a few months ago, but the real beneficiaries were still waiting for relief. He said that a total of ₹359 crore was released to the DCC bank, and part of the amount was credited to 74,000 loan accounts. But the remaining money was not released by the apex bank stating that it had already been credited against dues at the DCC bank. After an inquiry, ₹140 crore was found to have been “misused” and not paid back to the apex bank.
Making it clear that the coalition government was “pro-farmer”, the Chief Minister said the government has already deposited for farm loan waiver ₹9,000 crore in nationalised banks and ₹11,000 crore in cooperative banks.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Kumaraswamy promised to ensure the scheme is implemented properly after activists of the Karnataka Prantha Raita Sangha staged a protest outside the new circuit house in Yadgir before he left for Chandraki village. They took exception to loan waiver amount being taken back from many farmers’ accounts in nationalised banks because of irregularities found during an audit.
Foundation stone laid
Promising more developments in Gurmitkal constituency, Mr. Kumaraswamy on Friday laid the foundation stone for various development works running up to ₹31.97 crore during his ‘Janata Darshan’ programme, held as part of his ‘grama vaastavya’ initiative, in Chandraki village of Yadgir district. He also announced a fun of ₹1 crore to develop the weekly marketplace in the village.
