Hyderabad: Farm loans taken on fake documents has now become a serious issue for the state of AP.
Officials assessing the records to implement the loan waiver stumbled on a major scam. It is believed that multiple loans were availed by the same persons and loans taken by pseudo farmers on bogus revenue and land documents would amount to about Rs 15,000 crore.
Information minister Mr Palle Raghunath Reddy said, “We are going to focus on the fake farm loans wherein persons claiming to be farmers obtained loans by producing fake pattadar passbooks and revenue documents like adangal copies. The total farm loan amount in AP would come up to Rs 59,000 crore. The fake loans would be around Rs 15,000 crore. After the committee on farm loan waiver submits its report the Cabinet, we will finalise how to go about it.”
When asked how the government intends to identify fake farm loans, the minister replied, “We will evolve a process to identify the fake farm loans. It’s not going to be a difficult exercise. Our aim is to provide relief to genuine farmers.”
In the year 2009 in Prakasam district, around Rs 10 crore loans were obtained at a local bank where pattadar passbooks were forged to claim ownership over 4,000 to 5,000 acres in Ravinutala, Pamidipadu, Divalravuru, Bollavarappadu, Kurravanipalem, Kanaganivaripalem.
An official in the revenue department said, “The typical modus operandi is that they change photographs and forge signatures of revenue officials on passbooks. There are gangs that print and circulate fake passbooks. The fraud farmers claim huge amounts of crop loans and use them as security to get term loans. This bleeds the banks.”
