Crop loan waiver, agricultural jewel loans put on hold

Detailed inquiries will be taken up in view of irregularities

In view of several irregularities found in the implementation of the crop loan waiver and agricultural jewel loan schemes announced by the previous AIADMK government, the DMK government on Friday said detailed inquiries would be taken up in these schemes before they are implemented further. Presenting the revised Budget for 2021-22, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said: “Many irregularities have been found in the implementation of the crop loan waiver scheme. In certain districts, a suspiciously large amount of loans was disbursed just prior to the announcement of the scheme. In some cases, societies retained loan collections and disbursed them again, which amounts to evergreening of the portfolio.” There have been violations at the individual beneficiary level, including the disbursal of loans without crop details as per the adangal and 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 the release of cash credit from district co-operative credit banks.