Even as the self-appointed gangs of privacy protectors continue their legal operations to subvert the mandatory use of Aadhar in various public services, the Maharashtra government has used the scheme to successfully avert a major financial scam in its farm loan waiver scheme by detecting in time that the data provided by banks on distressed farmers seeking waiver had wrong or inconsistent Aadhaar numbers.
Out of the records of 25.57 lakh farmers submitted by the banks along with their Aadhaar numbers, 19.85 lakh records were found with either invalid or junk Aadhaar numbers on cross-checking with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI.
The state government had asked farmers in July to register on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana (CSMSSY) portal using Aadhaar e-KYC authentication for loan waiver, following a popular farmers' movement triggered by the suicide of a large number of peasants.
Banks were asked, separately, to provide information regarding pending farm loans in a 66-column template. Banks have so far provided 30 lakh records to the state government, and provided Aadhaar number of the loan account holder in 25.57 lakh records, although more than a crore of farmers registered themselves on the CSMSSY portal.
Subsequently, the state government discovered three kinds of errors after the bank data was sought to be validated by matching them with the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of UIDAI. The first error related to the incorrect Aadhaar number furnished by the bank. The second was that one valid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals. The third was was that the same invalid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals.
There were cases of a random 12-digit Aadhaar number like '100000000000' or '111111111111' or '123123123123' provided for multiple individuals.
Reportedly, the problem was that banks did not realize that UIDAI does not allot Aadhaar numbers starting with 0 or 1. So the whole thing may smack of wilful forgery by banks. If the data was not cross-checked with UIDAI, the state government may have credited the loan waiver amount to banks while actual beneficiary farmers would have struggled to get the benefit.
The Maharashtra government also found other errors in the data provided by banks - like incorrect savings and loan account numbers, a mismatch in principal amount and interest amount that did not match the total amount provided by banks and same account numbers being classified in the overdue category and fully paid category.
In the light of the scam unearthed, State CM Devendra Fadnavis told the state level bankers' committee on October 25 to ensure that all subsequent data provided by them is free of such errors and inconsistencies.
It may be recalled that during the demonetization scheme, too, grave irregularities were detected on the part of both public sector and private banks - like allowing huge deposits and withdrawals by lakhs of shell companies.
Banks use Maha farm loan waiver to plot a scam
By IndianMandarins - 2017-11-05 09:17:42
Even as the self-appointed gangs of privacy protectors continue their legal operations to subvert the mandatory use of Aadhar in various public services, the Maharashtra government has used the scheme to successfully avert a major financial scam in its farm loan waiver scheme by detecting in time that the data provided by banks on distressed farmers seeking waiver had wrong or inconsistent Aadhaar numbers.
Out of the records of 25.57 lakh farmers submitted by the banks along with their Aadhaar numbers, 19.85 lakh records were found with either invalid or junk Aadhaar numbers on cross-checking with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI.
The state government had asked farmers in July to register on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana (CSMSSY) portal using Aadhaar e-KYC authentication for loan waiver, following a popular farmers' movement triggered by the suicide of a large number of peasants.
Banks were asked, separately, to provide information regarding pending farm loans in a 66-column template. Banks have so far provided 30 lakh records to the state government, and provided Aadhaar number of the loan account holder in 25.57 lakh records, although more than a crore of farmers registered themselves on the CSMSSY portal.
Subsequently, the state government discovered three kinds of errors after the bank data was sought to be validated by matching them with the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of UIDAI. The first error related to the incorrect Aadhaar number furnished by the bank. The second was that one valid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals. The third was was that the same invalid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals.
There were cases of a random 12-digit Aadhaar number like '100000000000' or '111111111111' or '123123123123' provided for multiple individuals.
Reportedly, the problem was that banks did not realize that UIDAI does not allot Aadhaar numbers starting with 0 or 1. So the whole thing may smack of wilful forgery by banks. If the data was not cross-checked with UIDAI, the state government may have credited the loan waiver amount to banks while actual beneficiary farmers would have struggled to get the benefit.
The Maharashtra government also found other errors in the data provided by banks - like incorrect savings and loan account numbers, a mismatch in principal amount and interest amount that did not match the total amount provided by banks and same account numbers being classified in the overdue category and fully paid category.
In the light of the scam unearthed, State CM Devendra Fadnavis told the state level bankers' committee on October 25 to ensure that all subsequent data provided by them is free of such errors and inconsistencies.
It may be recalled that during the demonetization scheme, too, grave irregularities were detected on the part of both public sector and private banks - like allowing huge deposits and withdrawals by lakhs of shell companies.
