New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday assured stringent action if any irregularities are found in the Rs.52,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
'The reference is to the CAG report on loan waiver scheme. This is a matter which would interest the PAC (Public Accounts Committee),' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, when the issue was raised in the upper house.
'If there are any irregularities which are found, I assure the house we will take stringent action against the defaulters,' the prime minister told the Rajya Sabha.
He was responding after opposition Bharatiya Janata party raised the issue, calling it a 'scam'.
'There has been account tampering, 34 lakh farmers did not get the benefit. Farmers are committing suicide,' BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad said, raising the issue in zero hour.
'This is not just account fudging, this is a scam and it is very painful. Government should say why such irregularity was there,' he said.
Even as the prime minister assured action, BJP members kept agitating and trooped near the chairman's podium, shouting slogans and calling the government 'anti-farmer'.
Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien adjourned the house for 10 minutes.
The Lok Sabha also saw an uproar on the issue, with question hour adjourned over the issue.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned till noon Wednesday after noisy protests by opposition parties over discrepancies in the Rs.52,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
As soon as the house met, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party demanded suspension of question hour to discuss the 'scam'.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's repeated requests to allow question hour to run smoothly proved futile, as members trooped to the speaker's podium, shouting slogans.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in parliament Tuesday on the 'Implementation of Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008' said there were irregularities in at least one in five cases.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government had announced a debt waiver for farmers across the country in 2008, a move analysts say helped the government win the 2009 general election.
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