As criticism of Maharashtra's mismanaged farm loan waiver mounts, Nashik DCC Bank chairman Narendra Darade resigns

Maharashtra’s ‘historic’ farm loan waiver scheme, the ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana’ (CSMSSY), has been plagued with technical errors and mismatches of data. Nearly five months after the scheme’s announcement, the loan waiver scheme has not taken off in a significant way. Banks have been facing the wrath of farmers, and taking much of the blame for the poor implementation of the scheme. The mismanagement of the scheme has led to the resignation of Narendra Darade, the chairman of the Nashik District Central Cooperative Bank, who has quit his post citing problems due to the loan waiver scheme and demonetisation. This comes just days after senior bureaucrat VK Gautam was transferred following criticism over the implementation of the scheme. Speaking to Firstpost from Nashik, Darade confirmed that he resigned from his post two days back due to the mishandling of the loan waiver scheme in the last five months. Much like the situation in the aftermath of demonetisation, the loan waiver scheme created a host of problems for the DCC banks, which continue till date. “I have faced the wrath of farmers and account holders, but I could not give them justice even in my capacity as chairman. Hence, I have quit my post,” Darade said. Darade said that a list of 1.90 lakh farmers was sent to the SLBC (state level bankers’ committee) by the bank. Out of this, 1.30 lakh farmers were found to be eligible by the state government. “However, we received only 9,900 names of farmers as beneficiaries of the scheme in the first phase. We received an amount of about Rs 25 crore towards the loan waiver scheme, but due to technical errors and other reasons, we have not transferred the amounts. Only 550 farmers, who received incentive amounts for repaying their loans, were the actual beneficiaries of my bank,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_4235817” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to Darade, repayment of loans stopped immediately after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the waiver. “What is frustrating is that we are not getting adequate funds from the state government. This creates financial problems for DCC banks. After the announcement of the waiver, the government deposited only a small amount in the bank.” With the month of November coming to a close, the kharif season has ended and the rabi season has begun. With the government not having deposited adequate money in the bank, the bank would not be able to disburse new loans to farmers, Darade said. “I think the government is helpless, and so are we,” he remarked. Much like the loan waiver scheme, demonetisation had a heavy impact on DCC banks. After demonetisation, account holders deposited Rs 341 crore in the Nashik DCC Bank, in return for which the bank gave new notes. “But we received the old currency notes from the RBI after almost nine months. An amount of about Rs 700 crores is stuck for us. Most of our account holders want their deposits back,” Darade said. Darade is a district-level leader of the Shiv Sena. He took charge as chairman two-and-a-half years ago, and half of his tenure is still left. The total money deposited in the bank is about Rs 3,500 crore. The Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra announced the loan waiver on 24 June. It was expected to benefit about 89 lakh farmers. The government began the process of crediting the amount into the bank accounts of farmers five weeks ago. The state government has received 77.29 lakh applications for the loan waiver. It believes that out of these, 67 lakh farmers will qualify for the waiver. However, the waiver is progressing at a very slow speed. To speed up the disbursal process, the state government has replaced the private firm Innowave infrastructure IT Ltd. with its own agency, Mahaonline, and has tasked it with weeding out duplication. Although Mahaonline is using data from Innowave, it is a tough task as there is a large amount of mismatch in the data. The department of information and technology (DIT) and Mahaonline are scrutinising the list of applicants. “We hope that the new list will be provided to us early next week. After this, we will release the money to banks,” said an official of the co-operation department to Firstpost. The minister for co-operation Subhash Deshmukh and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the list of 80 percent of the beneficiaries will be prepared by 25 November and that actual disbursement will begin by the end of November. The month of November has come to an end. The chief minister announced a new list of 15.42 lakh beneficiary farmers and said that an amount of Rs 6500 crore has been deposited in banks. But five days after the announcement, no one has details of the names of the banks, districts and farmers. On Wednesday evening, additional chief secretary to the chief minister Praveen Pardeshi, additional chief secretary (finance) DK Jain, principal secretary (IT) SVR Srinivas and the OSD to the CM Kaustubh Dhavse took part in a marathon meeting via video conferencing with representatives of banks. But the mess has not yet been solved, and it will take another week, said sources close to the CMO. The farm loan waiver scheme has been marked by duplication of beneficiaries’ names, incorrect Aadhaar card details, incorrect amounts, etc. Due to this, the scheme remains in a mess five months after its announcement. Various agencies, including DCC and nationalized banks, the government’s information technology department, the co-operation department, etc have all displayed tremendous lethargy and inaction, due to which confusion and uncertainty over the scheme persists to this day. Read earlier stories in the series: Maharashtra loan waiver: How banks undid Fadnavis' pet plan, forcing him to delink Aadhaar from disbursal Maharashtra loan waiver: Devendra Fadnavis govt must file FIR against banks for bungling, says Prithviraj Chavan Senior bureaucrat VK Gautam shunted to finance in fallout over Maharashtra government's bungled loan waiver scheme Maharashtra loan waiver: Latur farmers get SMS from banks, postcards from Fadnavis, but money's nowhere