K’taka loan waiver system detects bogus docs

About 1.80 lakh farmers seeking waiver of crop loans have submitted bogus Aadhaar, ration card and land record details, authorities have discovered. The waiver process for these farmers has been put on hold as a result.

Aadhaar, ration card and land records are mandatory for farmers who are claiming the loan waiver, which is Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s pet project.

That so many farmers have submitted bogus documents came to light during the verification process to determine their eligibility for crop loan waiver.

A total of 16.72 lakh farmers have borrowed loans from commercial banks across the state, of whom 97% have submitted the three documents to their bank branches. “Of them, 1.80 lakh have given us dummy documents. In most cases, the ration card numbers provided do not exist.

In other cases, the Aadhaar numbers don’t exist and the land survey details are false,” an officer involved with the verification process said.

The loan waiver claimed by these farmers amounts to about Rs 2,000 crore. Survey, Settlement and Land Records Commissioner Munish Moudgil, who is overseeing the implementation of the crop loan waiver scheme, has referred these cases to the Department of Food and Civil Supplies and to the banks for further verification.
Apparently, farmers’ ration card credentials can be fetched if their Aadhaar is genuine since the Department of Food and Civil Supplies has linked the two.

“In the cooperative sector, we had about four lakh farmers who hadn’t submitted ration card details. But we were able to retrieve those details for two lakh farmers through their Aadhaar,” the official said.

‘Missing’ farmers

Plus, another one lakh farmers with loans in commercial banks are not to be found, literally.

Since the waiver covers loans borrowed since 2009, authorities say some may have moved to a new address. However, their loan waiver will be processed if their verification is cleared.

Till date, the government has paid commercial banks Rs 843 crore towards waiving the loans of 1.88 lakh farmers. Cooperative banks have received Rs 1,796 crore for 3.86 lakh farmers’ loans.

“In a day or two, we will pay another Rs 1,300 crore for about five lakh farmers’ loans,” Moudgil said.

“Our portal clws.karnataka.gov.in has all the payment details and names of eligible farmers open for public scrutiny,” he said.