Mumbai: The glitches in the online component of implementing the loan waiver scheme may send chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the back foot in the winter session of the assembly, commencing on Monday. A few months ago, Mr Fadnavis had announced the ambitious waiver scheme that is likely to cost the exchequer Rs 34,000 crore at a time when state finances are in a bad shape, resulting in a lot of flak for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government.
Due to the issues in the IT department, the BJP hasn’t been able to get any political mileage of being able to execute a historical decision and the atmosphere is such that it seems that all the work done by them is a result of the pressure on them from their ally, Shiv Sena, the Opposition and the farmers’ organisations.
Earlier, Mr Fadnavis had levelled allegations against the loan waivers declared during the Congress regime. According to him, the decision to go online was taken to prevent earlier mistakes. However, issues related to Aadhaar data and bank processes had attracted the ire of politicians as well as the farmers.
Questions have been raised on the banks and the government for making Aadhaar card mandatory for waiver even when the applications could have been processed using any document for identification.
Due to the delay in loan waiver, the farmers with outstanding loans are unable to get new loans for the rabi season. Mr Fadnavis has already principle secretary of the IT department, V.K. Gautam, but the Opposition parties are demanding action against official on special duty Kaustubh Dhavse as well. The Opposition is likely to target Mr Fadnavis on these issues.
