When confusion reigns over the number of jewelry loans to be waived in the state, Cooperation Minister R Sakkarapani said Thursday that out of a total of 48.84 lakh jewelry loans in cooperative societies, only 13.47 loans de lakh are eligible for waiver.

Sakkarapani, in a statement, said that out of the 48.84 lakhs total of jewelry loans, 7.65 lakhs is above the prescribed limit of 40 grams. Of the remaining 41.18 lakh jewelry loans, 21.63 lakh jewelry loans were obtained by members whose family members obtained loans in other cooperative societies, bringing the total to over 40 grams.

Thus, of the remaining 19.55 lakh jewelry loans, 2.2 lakh loans were obtained fraudulently using AAY ration cards and of the remaining 17.34 lakh jewelry loans, 2, 13 lakh will not be eligible for a waiver because the people who got jewelry loans have already got the farm loan waiver.

Of the remaining 15.2 lakh of jewelry loans, only 13.47 lakh of jewelry loans are eligible for waiver, as nearly 1.5 lakh of jewelry loans were obtained through fraudulent means such as the pledging of false gold jewelry and the pledging of no jewelry.

The minister also provided for an easing whereby if proper details about rations and Aadhaar cards were provided, they would be investigated and the true beneficiaries would be added to the list of jewelry loan waivers.

The minister further said that in the previous rule of AIADMK, while providing jewelry loans to farmers, there were several irregularities and to ensure that the benefit only reaches genuine people, the government State carried out an in-depth audit of the files, after which the final figures were obtained. at and dismissed claims that there was politics in the choice of beneficiaries.