Mumbai: The involvement of as many as 141 people who allegedly indulged in corrupt practices to take benefits of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farmers’ loan waiver scheme-2019 exposed by TheNews21 with support of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has been vindicated after the Sangli district collector directed the deputy registrar to lodge criminal case against the culprits.
The story of irregularities in farmers’ loan waiver scheme was exposed by the Raj Thackeray-led outfit MNS and subsequently followed up by TheNews21, has finally yielded result.
An enquiry was conducted into the data which was uploaded by banks on the portal of the farmers who had applied to take financial aid under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farmers’ loan waiver scheme. The Talathi (Village Accountant) was directed to collect information of farmers’ who do not own a piece of land or the one who owns less than 10 gunthas of land, and was examined by the Auditor of the state government.
The findings revealed that 141 people from Sangli had indulged in corrupt practices to take the benefits of loan waiver scheme. Taking cognisance of this, Sangli District Collector, Dr. Abhijeet Chaudhari has directed to stop the release of fund into the accounts of those who have not received the financial aid and revert it to the government.
He has also directed the deputy registrar to lodge case of fraud against those who have violated the norms and have taken undue benefits from the government.
Not only this, the violators will also have to return the amount in its entiriety to the government.
MNS, general secretary, Kirtikumar Shinde had written a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, demanding probe into the irregularities.
Cases have already been registered against 12 persons for taking benefits of the said scheme without submitting the the 7/12 document to the financial institution. The 7/12 document is an extract from the Land Register of any district in Maharashtra, which gives complete information about a particular piece of land.
It contains important details such as the survey number, area, date from which the current owner’s name was registered among others.
Financial aid to the tune of Rs. 92,42,833 has been disbursed to the ineligible in 110 accounts.
Following are the list of banks from where the ineligible persons took benefits:- Bank of Baroda: Out of the 30 ineligible accounts Rs.7,43,663/- has been released to 25 accounts.
Bank of India: Rs. 36,13,813/- released to 33 accounts out of the total 39 ineligible accounts.
HDFC Bank: Four ineligible account holders have received Rs.1, 98,013/- Bank of Maharashtra:- Rs. 30, 249/- released to one ineligible account holder
And, the Corporation Bank, Karad/ Wangi, Rs.20,06,531/- released to 32 ineligible account holders.Bank of Baroda, Karad, Rs. 3,94,132 released to three accounts.
The MNS general secretary Kirtikumar Shinde has said that the irregularity in the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule farmers’ loan waiver scheme is not limited to Sangli alone and is being taking place in other districts of the state as well.
