Rajasthan: Villagers Who Didn't Take Loans Named As Beneficiaries In Waiver List; Farmers Allege Scam

The agricultural distress is still haunting the farmers of our country. In the past, many farmers from different states have demanded the farm loan waiver. Multiple protests and rallies for the cause have pushed the governments of several states to order farm loan waiver. In Rajasthan, the previous BJP government had also announced a farm loan waiver. However, in the beneficiary list that has been put online, reportedly, names of the people who have not taken any loans have appeared.

Farmers grieve about their problems

In Rajasthan’s Dungarpur district, after the online list named villagers who never received any loans as beneficiaries, many villagers have come on the streets to protest about the mistakes in the list. While talking to the media, angry villagers claimed that they only got to know about the irregularities when they saw the online list.

Rajasthan: People in Dungarpur district allege discrepancies in farm loan waiver, say "Names of those who didn't take loan are in the list." Dist Collector (pic 3) says "Received complaints from few places. Teams sent for probe. Loan supervisor suspended, manager’s powers seized" pic.twitter.com/LFh6zfrAmw

— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019

“Hamara pese loota ja raha hai, hamare peso se apne bade bade ghar bana liye hai… agar list online nahi hoti to hame pata bhi nahi chalta…(They (officials ) are looting our money, they have built their bungalows from our money…If the list would not have been online than we would have remained oblivious of the irregularities),” said one of the villagers, reported the Times Now.

According to India Today, the alleged scam has been reported from not just one village but from several other villages. Among those villages are Govadi, Nandor and Jethana. In Govadi village alone, some 1,780 farmers have been falsely named as the beneficiaries of the loan waiver, receiving a total amount of eight crore loan.

Probe into the matter

The furious farmers have demanded an inquiry into the matter. One of the farmer Nandor farmer Pratap Rao, who is listed as the beneficiary in the list said that there are 500 such people alone from his village, whose name have come up on the list. Demanding an enquiry into the ‘scam’, he said, “An audit should be conducted to know, since when this loan is being given and since when it is being taken.” He added that the villagers would meet the Collector to demand action against the guilty.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Dungarpur’s Jethana region have handed over a memorandum to the Collector, they have also raised a complaint to the cooperative MD.

Former Sarpanch of one of the villages, Ishwarlal Charpota said, “We will get loans for those farmers who did not get loans and will demand justice for those as well whose names have appeared fraudulently. It is a scam of Rs 8 crore. The list, which has been released, has names that are known to several people. Along with this, we have given a memorandum to the SDM to take action against the guilty officials.”

The Logical Indian spoke to the Dungarpur’s collector Chetan Devraj, who told us that the farm loan scheme was launched by the BJP government when it was in power. “We have received a few complaints from the villagers about the decencies in the online list. We have initiated the inquiry into the matter.” When asked how many complaints have been registered so far, the collector said that he can not say anything until the investigations are done.

Twist amid the blame game

Amidst the protest, the BJP government had blamed the newly elected Congress party for the irregularities in the list. It had earlier claimed that the online list had come out after the Congress recently announced the loan waiver for Rs two lakh each for the distressed farmers. The BJP called the irregularities a scam. While speaking to the India Today, one of the BJP state presidents Madan Lal Saini said, “It should be investigated, and action should be taken against culprits.”

However, when The Logical Indian spoke to the BJP state president Madan Lal Saini, he refused to name Congress as he did earlier. The minister said that the investigations are going on and he can not comment on the matter. When we asked him why the BJP blamed the Congress party for the online scheme, the Minister said that whoever is responsible for the irregularities should be punished.

After calling the discrepancies, a big scam the BJP minister changed its tone. “It is not a scam, the investigations are going on. I would not say much on the issue,” said the minister.

The Logical Indian Take

This is a massive flaw on the part of the BJP government. The chances of irregularities just being a mistake is quite negligible as it did not happen with only just one farmer, but reportedly, 1780 farmers have been named as the beneficiaries.

The discrepancies in the loan disbursement are causing a lot of problems to the farmers. Firstly, they have to fight the government to ask for loan waivers, and then they also have to suffer such irregularities in the beneficiary list.

Also Read: Sikar, Rajasthan: Farmers Call Off 13-Day Long Strike After Govt Agrees to Waive Farmers’ Loans up to Rs 50,000