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STATES: GUJARAT
Licence To Loot
Loans in the name of quake relief are being increasingly
availed of by bogus claimants
By Uday Mahurkar
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PAPER JAM: Fake applications flood the District Industries Centre
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Just picture these women. They are a splash of
colour, the brightness of their ghaghra-cholis matched only by the bold
bands of silver and plastic on their cracked feet and hands. This is rustic
charm, beauty in its rawest form. At least that's what the Gujarat Government
seems to think. Or how else would it justify the fact that these women,
who haven't the faintest idea of what a lipstick is are now licensed to
run beauty parlours in some of the villages in the state?
Kapurasi-Koriani village of Lakhpat taluka in
Kutch district was fortunate not to have been wrecked like its neighbours
in the killer earthquake that struck Gujarat on January 26. In fact, not
one of its 550 houses was damaged. Yet, it has been at the forefront of
the Government's post-quake relief schemes. To its credit, the village
has managed to get as many as 250 applications cleared for loans of Rs
1 lakh each to set up small businesses, including three beauty parlours
and 40 cutlery and grocery shops.
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DUBIOUS DUO: Jatin K. Shah
and Bhogilal Mehta sent in two applications each for the same business.
The DIC recommended two loans each for them.
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The case of Haroda, another village in Lakhpat
taluk, is more amusing. It has over 100 houses but as many as five dozen
loan applications of Rs 1 lakh each were made for similar enterprises.
The money has been sanctioned in nearly two dozen cases already. Of these,
six are for setting up beauty parlours. Similarly the predominantly Muslim-Jat
Ludbai village, where most people are forced to go without a bath for
days because of the scarcity of water, will soon have a beauty clinic.
It appears that all that the villagers did in
these cases was approach the right people and the money was theirs to
do what they wanted. In fact, it's a foregone conclusion that the loans
will never be used for the purposes stated in the applications. Nor will
they be repaid. But it hardly matters. It's government largesse at its
best. Looking at it another way, it's an open loot of public money in
the name of earthquake relief. Says Mahesh Thakkar, Kutch district Congress
president: "It's a looting spree that is going on in connivance with
government officials." In the process genuine claimants have been
left high and dry, the only reason being they didn't met the right officials,
or more importantly, grease their palms.
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NONE
FOR THE NEEDY: Mahesh Lalji Rajgor lives with his 10 family members
in a tent. A month after he applied for a Rs 1 lakh loan, he is yet
to receive it. |
A look at the records available at the District
Industries Centre (DIC), the loan-sanctioning authority, shows that it
has cleared 15,800 applications amounting to Rs 158 crore so far out of
an estimated 40,000 loan applications. For the recipients, it's a veritable
bonanza as the largesse is topped with a 60 per cent subsidy. In other
words, for every Rs 1 lakh received, the borrower needs to return only
Rs 40,000. And even if they are bribing the officials which many say they
do-Navin Joshi, a journalist with local daily Kutchmitra, alleges that
the agents charge between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 for every case-they still
make a fortune.
That it is a full-fledged racket is apparent
from the manner in which the DIC "scrutinises" the applications
before forwarding them to the banks. The applicant's qualification for
the business he intends to start is not a factor at all. In at least two
cases, the centre had cleared two applications made by the same person
for the same business. The bloomers were detected by the Bhuj Commercial
Bank after it received the DIC's recommendations to release the money
to Jatin K. Shah and Bhogilal Mehta, both of whom had sent in two applications
each for their enterprise. Some like Vithaldas Champsi Thakkar of Ghaduli
village have managed to get four loans sanctioned in the names of different
family members against the Government norm limiting loans to one per family.
On the other hand, someone like Mahesh Lalji Rajgor, a grocery shop owner
who now lives in a tent with his 10 family members, is still awaiting
a loan. "I' m running from pillar to post while bogus, well-connected
applicants are not facing a single problem," he laments.
Having detected such anomalies, the banks have
become cautious. Fearing that the recipients will not repay even the Rs
40,000-the bank component of the loan which is to be recovered at low
interest rates-the banks are now forcing them to deposit at least 50 per
cent of the loan amount with them. Says Arvind Thakkar, chairman of the
Bhuj Commercial Bank: "The money that the banks are lending belongs
to the people at large. So we have to ensure some sort of security."
But Ajit Patel, a small hotel owner, questions the need to do such a thing.
"Isn't this proof enough that the money will never come back?"
he asks.
There is the ubiquitous political angle as well.
Industries Minister Suresh Mehta, it seems, is at the receiving end. Chief
Minister Keshubhai Patel's No. 2 man and an MLA from Kutch district, he
is said to be behind the large disbursement of loans by the Kutch District
Central Cooperative Bank, especially in the Abdasa-Nakhatrana-Dayapar
area. On the other hand, it is alleged that loan applications from Bhachau
and Rahpar have hardly been entertained because they fall under the influence
of Dhirubhai Shah, a Mehta foe and speaker of the Gujarat Assembly. While
such charges abound, there is precious little being done to look into
them. The Government clearly has no qualms about who the recipients of
its loans are or how the money is used. And as long as that is the case,
the women of Kapurasi, Haroda and Ludbai will continue to sit pretty.
With or without the aid of their beauty parlours.
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