Farm loan waiver issue hits Parliament
New Delhi, Mar 6 : Opposition parties on Wednesday created ruckus in both Houses of the Parliament over the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's loan waiver scheme even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured stringent 'possible action' against defaulters.
India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) created ruckus in the Rajya Sabha over the issue.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad raised the issue during the Zero Hour.
Assuring action, Singh said: "The reference is to the CAG report on loan waiver scheme. This is a matter which should be entrusted to the Public Accounts Committee as per normal practice."
"If there are any irregularities, which have been shown, I assure the House that we will take stringent possible action against the defaulters," he said.
The BJP members, who were unimpressed by Singh's reply on the issue, later moved to the Well of the House and made Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien to adjourn the House for a brief period.
The Lok Sabha on the other hand was adjourned till noon on Wednesday amid ruckus over irregularities in the UPA government's loan waiver scheme.
The BJP and Left members raised the issue as soon as the House met on Wednesday.
The BJP raised slogans against the government over the issue.
The BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP) went to the Well of the House and demanded suspension of the question hour to discuss the matter.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House till noon.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on farm debt waiver scheme, which was tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, highlighted irregularities in the implementation of the scheme.
The CAG had audited 90,000 farmer accounts and found errors and lapses in 20,000 cases.
The scheme, which is worth Rs 52,000 crore, was announced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2008 and had written off debt of above 3.7 crore farmers.
The CAG report stated that lapses were found in 22 percent cases.
More than 8.5 percent accounts were found ineligible, the report said.
The CAG report said 9, 334 accounts were examined in nine states in the country where 1257 accounts were found not eligible for benefits.