Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Abitkar claimed on Friday that he had been named as a beneficiary of the farm loan waiver in Kolhapur District Central Cooperative Bank (KDCCB), just a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis declared that the scheme was being implemented smoothly.
Mr. Prakash Abitkar, an MLA from Radhanagari in Kolhapur district, said in the Assembly, “I was stunned when I came to know that my name appeared in the green list of loan waiver beneficiaries. I was shocked again when I got more details about the list of my (Kolhapur) area … I had not even applied or registered my name anywhere to get the waiver,” he said.
The MLA claimed the list also included a few others — including a school teacher, a State government employee, and a retired principal — who should not be eligible for the loan waiver. “The State Information and Technology Department should be careful while releasing the money. My intention is to save the government money, as poor farmers should be beneficiaries and not people who don’t fit the criteria,” Mr. Prakash Abitkar said.
On Thursday, Mr. Fadnavis had listed individuals who cannot be beneficiaries of the waiver, including zilla parishad members, municipal corporators, MLAs and MPs.
Protem speaker Yogesh Sagar instructed the government to look into the matter.
In the evening, Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh released a statement saying the confusion was a result of identical first names, and the KDCCB had assigned the same loan account number to one Prakash Sutar and Mr. Abitkar. “We have corrected the mistake. No money was transferred to the MLAs account,” the statement said.
Leader of Opposition Radhkrishna Vikhe-Patil criticised the government, saying that Opposition parties had to point out errors made by the IT department.
