Farmers of Hilgan village in Madhya Pradesh were shocked to find their names in the state government’s loan waiver list, even though they did not have any pending dues, or have loans that are smaller than that mentioned in the list.
On Saturday, these distressed farmers assembled at the panchayat office and protested against this faulty list. They have threatened to commit mass suicide if the government and concerned authorities do not rectify this anomaly.
A farmer, Ram Kumar Lodi, found a list at the panchayat office that had his name among the farmers under debt. Moreover, it mentioned a substantial loan against his name, and also the name of his father who died a few years ago.
The Madhya Pradesh government has asked the authorities to investigate the fake loan case. CM Kamal Nath said that this might have been going for a long time and in excess of 2,000 crore rupees.
A farmer was shocked to see that he was mentioned as having taken 70,481 rupees as loan, while he had actually taken only 17,000 for sowing gram crops.
State cooperative minister Govind Singh assured that the investigations are already in progress and farmers not taken any loans would not be bothered.
