Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin informed the State Legislative Assembly that several irregularities to the tune of several crore rupees have been reported in the schemes to waive farm loans and gold loans. His government would implement these schemes only after the irregularities are rectified, the CM said.
Intervening when AIADMK legislator R.B. Udhayakumar (Thirumangalam) was speaking during a debate on the revised budget 2021-22 and agriculture budget presented in the House, Mr. Stalin said Cooperation Minister I. Periyasamy would list out where such irregularities have been reported in the schemes during his reply to the debate on the demand for grants in his department.
“We will implement them after the irregularities are rectified,” Mr. Stalin said. Though his government intended to implement the scheme, several irregularities were found in the scheme to waive gold loans. As for implementing the scheme to waive farm loans, irregularities to the tune of several crore rupees were reported, he said.
Mr. Stalin went on to say that his government would implement the promises made by his party in the election manifesto. “There is no need for any doubt about that,” he said.
During his speech, Mr. Udhayakumar had pointed to the White Paper on State’s finances released by Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and said it raised doubts as to whether the DMK was going back on its promises made in its election manifesto.
It may be recalled that Mr. Rajan too, while presenting the revised budget for 2021-22 on Friday last, said several irregularities were reported in the implementation of the schemes to waive farm and gold loans. He had said in certain districts, a suspiciously large amount of loans were disbursed just prior to the announcement of the scheme.
Mr. Rajan had said there have been violations at the individual beneficiary level including disbursal of loans without crop details as per the adangal , loan sanction in excess of the cropped area or in excess of the approved scale of finance. At the co-operative society level, some societies have disbursed loans without obtaining sanctions or without release of cash credit from the district co-operative credit banks.
In the case of agricultural jewel loans, the Finance Minister had said that it was found that jewels were not valued properly and were lower in weight or poorer in quality than recorded, he contended: “Writing off such loans amounts to rewarding wrongdoers. Hence, a detailed inquiry is required before the scheme is fully implemented.”
Published - August 16, 2021 04:31 pm IST
