Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) leaders have complained to the Government that the Malaprabha Sahakari Sakkare Karkhane in Belagavi district has obtained benami loans in the names of farmers and farm workers, mostly Dalits, without their informed consent.
Copies of the complaint have been given to Sugar Minister Shankar Patil Munenakoppa and Deputy Commissioner M.G. Hiremath.
On Thursday, KRRS leaders led a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Belagavi. Leaders Jayashree Gurannanavar and Basavaraj Ingle met the Deputy Commissioner and urged him to protect the loanee farmers.
“The Mugat Khan Hubli-based factory has collected KYC documents from the farmers and workers and taken huge loans in their names. It has made them sign 40-page documents, making false promises that it will give shares in the factory and COVID-19 compensation. The factory has not told the farmers that it is arranging loans for them. The local branch of the Bank of India has released the loans, considering the factory as the guarantor. The farmers don’t know this and neither has the money come to their accounts. Now, each farmer has a loan burden of around ₹5 lakh to ₹8 lakh, which he has not taken, but is being forced to repay,” Ms. Gurannanavar told the Deputy Commissioner.
She said that the fraud was detected when some farmers went to the Bank of India branch at Mugat Khan Hubli to take loans under the livelihood programme of the Government.
The Deputy Commissioner assured them of looking into the issue sympathetically and seeking directions from the Government.
Shocked
“Kallappa Chalavadi, a young farm hand from Mugat Khan Hubli, went to the bank to get a loan sanctioned from the Dr. Ambedkar Corporation. But he was shocked when the officer rejected his application, saying that he has already taken a loan from their branch. He realised that the factory has taken a loan in his name and appropriated the money,” Ms. Gurannanavar told The Hindu.
According to her, the factory has cheated 150 to 160 families and taken around ₹15 crore in such loans.
The KRRS has also filed a complaint with the Bank of India branch. The bank’s senior manager has issued an acknowledgement and an assurance that the managers will try to resolve the issue in a week. Sugar factory chairman and Janata Dal(S) leader Naseer Bagwan was not available for comment.
