The Government’s populist loan waiver for farmers has affected recovery of dues disbursed under various social upliftment schemes, with arrears of Rs 120.26 crore outstanding under beneficiary schemes for safai karamcharis and scavengers alone.
After the farm loan waiver announced by the Government in 2008, states are now finding it difficult to recover loans granted to safai karamcharis, scavengers and their dependants under various beneficiary schemes aimed at their social and economic upliftment.
A Social Justice Ministry note admits that “the recent announcement of the Government for loan waiver to farmers is one of the reasons for the low percentage of recovery of loans granted under beneficiary schemes to safai karamcharis and scavengers”.
The National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), run under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment with the primary objective of socio-economic development of safai karamcharis/scavengers and their dependants, has so far been able to recover only 72 per cent of the total outstanding loans worth over Rs 354.38 crore.
“The State Channelising Agencies (SCAs) of NSKFDC are finding it difficult to recover the loan amount from the beneficiaries. Due to the low performance of some SCAs, no funding under the NSKFDC schemes could be done in at least 12 states,” stated a Social Justice Ministry note.
The states where funding under the Scavengers/Safai Karamchari schemes has been stopped due to low recovery rate include Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.