Agri loans often fraudulent, controlled by brokers

A good number of sharecroppers and marginal farmers at villages in 45 unions of five upazilas under the district are recorded as loan defaulters with the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (Rakub) authority, allegedly through forgery.

"I got loan of Tk 20 thousand only but I have been shown as a defaulter of Tk 60 thousand," says landless farm labourer Jamal Uddin, 42, of Basti Khatamari village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila's Kulaghat union. "I took the loan two years ago, when local bank broker Abul Hossain introduced me with a bank official."

Unscrupulous bank officials employ many local brokers to tempt villagers to get agricultural loans from Rakub, he added.

Sharecropper Shah Alam, 48, of the same village said he took a loan of Tk 25 thousand for cultivating crops on two acres of land but he is now shown as defaulter of a Tk 60 thousand loan. A broker and a bank official did everything to arrange the loan, he added.

"It is difficult for genuine farmers to get agriculture loans from Rakub," says farmer Nazrul Islam of Lalmonirhat Sadar's Rajpur village. "Rather, cheats are recruited as brokers by unscrupulous officials and these people control the agriculture loans Rakub provides."

Mozahar Ali, a farmer at Barakhata village of Hatibandha upazila, says the names of a good number of farmers have been recorded as agriculture loan defaulters in the village as these loans were disbursed against fake names with fake documents.

Unscrupulous bank officials tarnish the image of Rakub, he added.

Mohammadul Islam, Kulaghat union land officer, said Rakub officials never check the land documents submitted by loan seeking farmers and so, people can get agriculture loans with fake documents.

Rakub official sources said a total of 17,944 farmers are recorded as loan defaulters, the total amount of such 'unpaid' loan being Tk 43 crore and 27 lakh, but bank officials are finding no trace of most of the listed loan defaulters in the areas concerned.

Contacted, alleged broker Abul Hossain at Basti Khatamari village in Lalmonirhat declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Rakub Lalmonirhat Sadar Branch Manager Rati Kanta Roy says bank officials are working to trace defaulting farmers and if anyone is falsely made a defaulter, the bank officials concerned must face departmental action.

Admitting the situation, Abdur Rouf Miah, the deputy general manager of Rakub, said departmental investigations by Rakub high officials are ongoing. Punitive action will be taken against any bank official involved in looting bank money in the name of providing agriculture loans, he says.