Faridkot farmers fail to make it to debt waiver list due to Aadhaar glitches

NAMES ON PORTAL ARE GIVEN BY BANKS AND REVENUE DEPT, BUT DO NOT MATCH SPELLINGS ON AADHAAR CARDS IN SEVERAL CASES

FARIDKOT : Nearly 1,800 small and marginal farmers in Faridkot district have failed to make to the first loan waiver list as their names have been misspelt in their Aadhaar cards, it is learnt.

An official requesting anonymity said details on the online loan waiver portal, provided by cooperative banks and revenue department, did not match with those on the Aadhaar cards.

Once the farmers get their Aadhaar details rectified as per revenue records, their data will be uploaded for the loan waiver process, the official said.

The names of as many 15 farmers of Agwar Dhilwan village of the district were not in the list due to same reason. For instance, Jora Singh was spelt Zora Singh.

Farmers said Aadhaar should not be mandatory for availing the waiver since there are several glitches due to negligence on part of the authorities.

Of the 16,000 small farmers who had applied for the waiver scheme, nearly 5,000 have been shortlisted after scrutiny. The district farmers will avail of ₹18 crore loan waiver in the first phase.

Faridkot sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Gurjit Singh said several cases which have been put on hold will be cleared only after due verification.

FARMERS LOCK CO-OP SOCIETY OFFICE

BATHINDA: Farmers locked the office of agriculture cooperative society at Dikh village on Thursday alleging that ineligible farmers have been included in the debt loan waiver list. The list of beneficiaries was pasted at the society office earlier on Thursday which led to the protest. Farmers alleged that many with land holdings below 2.5 acres have not been included in the list. HTC

‘LISTS IN PUNJABI’

BATHINDA: Days after protests broke out in the state over relegating Punjabi to number three on signboards, behind Hindi and English, a delegation of activists over the issue demanded that lists of farmer beneficiaries under the waiver programme be released in Punjabi instead of English, on Thursday.