Rs. 1,000 cr. loans availed by fake farmers, says panel

The Telangana Cabinet Sub-Committee on farm loan waiver said that verification of records pertaining to crop loans revealed that institutional credit to the tune of about Rs. 1,000 crore was taken by bogus farmers using fake pattadar passbooks in connivance with officials of the Revenue Department.

Headed by Minister for Agriculture P. Srinivas Reddy, the Cabinet Sub-Committee held its third meeting at Dr. Marri Channa Reddy HRD Institute here on Saturday. Speaking to newspersons after the meeting, the Minister said that they had clarity on about Rs. 16,000 crore crop loan availed of by about 36 lakh farmers after examining the records.

Committed to promise

Stating that the TRS government was committed to implementing the farm loan waiver promise by September 30 at any cost so as to enable the farmers to get fresh loans and crop insurance coverage, the Minister said the amount required would be adjusted to the bankers. The form of adjustment would be decided by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after the Sub-Committee submits its report to him.

He attributed the delay in implementation of the debt relief scheme to the complex process of examination of crop loan records and their cross-verification at the village level. An announcement would be made as soon as the process of verification was completed.

Finance Minister E. Rajender, member of the committee, explained that the examination of records had revealed irregularities such as taking crop loans without any landholdings, loans with the help of fake pattadar passbooks, loans without cultivating crop last year, land owners and tenant farmers taking loans on the same piece of land and taking loans from both commercial and cooperative banks for the same piece of land among others.

Waiver only for the eligible

However, the government was firm on extending the benefit only to eligible farmers by weeding out bogus farmers from the lists of beneficiaries, he said. Besides, those who had availed of gold loans at 7 per cent interest rate would also be covered under the waiver scheme.

Ministers P. Mahender Reddy, T. Harish Rao, K.T. Rama Rao and J. Ramanna, Principal Secretary (Finance) V. Nagi Reddy, Special Secretary A. Ramakrishna Rao and Agriculture Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy attended the meeting.