JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has cancelled almost 50,000 cases of farmer loan waivers approved by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government after an investigation by the state Cooperative Department found that the waivers were being directed to fake accounts. The department found that if money had reached the fake accounts the state exchequer would have lost Rs 125 crore.
As bunglings in the loan waivers surfaced, Cooperative Minister Udaylal Aanjna set up an inquiry into the matter and found that Cooperative Bank employees had issued multiple fake farm loans to fake accounts which would’ve seen them pocket crores.
Managing Director of the Cooperative Apex Bank, Inder Singh, said that there were heavy discrepancies and added that there were some who were not eligible for the coverage, few of the government employees were made beneficiaries and even dead persons were also made beneficiaries. In some cases, there were mistakes in calculations.
“We found nearly 50,000 entries to be false in all over Rajasthan. We have cancelled all these entries; the genuine ones will now be given the amount they are entitled to,” said Inder Singh. The Congress said that in order to get votes from the farmers BJP targeted the vulnerable for their own benefit.