Follow Us
Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service
Kiratpur Sahib, January 30
Loans worth thousands of rupees have allegedly been raised in the names of farmers belonging to Paharpur, Samlah and Baloli villages.
The victims after coming to know about the fraud approached the authorities, seeking a high-level probe.
They claimed that the number of such farmers was quite high, from whose accounts crores of rupees had been withdrawn.
The loans of a few account-holders have been waived under debt-waiver scheme.
Terming the allegation baseless, local co-operative society secretary Sarwan Kumar claimed that there was nothing wrong with their accounts, adding that they were in the habit of creating confusion. Six farmers, including Chint Ram of Baloli, Gurmail Singh of Paharpur, Jaipal, Amar Chand and Rajpal of Samlah village said their accounts were opened in Central Co-operative Bank at Kiratpur Sahib by the co-operative society of their village. Cheque books issued by the bank to them were taken away by the secretary of society, they alleged.
Chint Ram said he took a loan of Rs 50,000 from the bank in December 2014 and later returned it through the secretary. Though an entry in this regard was also made by the secretary in his pass book, a loan of Rs 49,272 was pending in his account, which was waived under the debt relief scheme of the state government on January 24, he said.
Another farmer Gurmail Singh of Paharpur village said that he had taken a loan of Rs 20,000 since his account was opened in bank several years ago. The bank records, however, did not show any such entry. On the contrary, several entries of loans were made in the same account and currently, a loan of Rs 78,737 is pending against him. Guramail, however, claimed that he did not know as to who had made the transactions in his name.
Bank branch manager Inder Singh said there was no lapse on the part of bank staff. Society secretary Sarwan Singh said the farmers were levelling baseless allegations out of confusion.
1
4
9