Lakhs of ghost farm accounts

Now, number of beneficiaries down from 89 to 69 lakhs; loan waiver amount down from Rs 34022 cr to Rs 20,734 cr

The government of Maharashtra on Thursday defended itself in the State Assembly saying the delay in disbursement of farmers’ loan waiver was due to duplicate names and ghost accounts. The good news is that actual beneficiaries of the scheme have diminished from the expected 89 lakh to 69 lakh.

The State Level Banking Committee had pegged the beneficiaries at 89 lakh but the actual applications received were just 77 lakhs. Then, applicants had to fulfil certain norms or they got eliminated, so the government claims the actual number of beneficiaries has reduced. The Information and Technology department under the guidance of CM Devendra Fadnavis defended itself saying they have exposed ghost accounts in nationalised banks which were given the benefit of loan waiver scheme in 2008-09; with that, the burden on the state exchequer has come down from the expected Rs 34022 crore to just Rs 20,734 crore.

Fadnavis revealed the details of bank account holders who had taken the benefit of the 2008 loan waiver which was meant for small land holders (below 2.5 hectares).

He added, "A nationalised bank submitted a list of 6.5 lakh account holders through SLBC. When accounts were scrutinised, it was 1.29 lakh accounts. So, almost five lakh accounts were found to be ghost accounts." He added that if we had implemented the 2008 formula, the money would have been transferred to such ghost accounts.