Maharsahtra CM Devendra Fadnavis Maharsahtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

The economic reforms adopted by Maharashtra government may not have led to 100 per cent cashless transactions, but it has kick started the process of rural transformation through social sectors. This has resulted in bringing greater transparency and accountability in the system and checking corruption.

On July 24, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took the decision to go digital so as to streamline the process of loan waivers for farmers. The process helped the state government to unearth 23 lakh ghost accounts. If the government had not carried out this action, it is estimated that they would have financially bled the state to the tune of Rs 10,000-15,000 crores.

When the loan waiver was announced, the State Level Bankers Committe (SLBC) said the total number of accounts of farmers in district cooperative, national and commerical banks together amounted to 89 lakh, while the total loan amount amounted to Rs 34,200 crore.

In a clear departure from the old process where banks submitted lists of farmers and sought funds, the Maharashtra governnment decided to validate every case digitally. The directives were to directly credit the loan into the bank accounts of individual eligible farmers

Much to the surprise and shock of the government, the SLBC submitted a revised loan list amounting not to 89 lakh but 67 lakhs.

Fadnavis said, “The digital process has helped to ascertain the credentials of each and every genuine farmer. The decision to credit the loan amount in farmers’ account has helped to plug the flaws in the system which were in existence for decades.” He confessed to shock and disbelief at the large number of ghost accounts.

He added, “Digital technology does not discriminate between gender or caste or religion. It helps to minimise human interventions an deliver results which are well documented. The process brings higher degree of accountability and responsibility in the system.

Maharashtra’s digital drive can be attributed to the tech savvy leadership of Fadnavis who intiated the reform a year before the demonestisation rolled out on November 8, 2016.

In June 2015, the Chief Minister announced a partnership wit Microsoft to digitally transform a severely malnourished village, Harisal in district Maleghat in Maharashtra. It has since become the first digital village of Maharashtra.

The state government also started the MahaDBT portal which facilitated online application for students seeking education scholarships. The project, expected to help 50 lakh students specially those from backward class and economically weaker sections, was started in the backdrop of scams amounting to Rs 2700 crores. The portal makes it mandatory for the ministry of social justice to directly transfer the fees into the bank accounts of the students.

According to Minister for social justice Dilip Kamble, “The digital process helps to keep the account of every student which is Aadhar-linked.

Chief Minister Fadnavis overcame the doubts of cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats to push through the reforms at the grassroots.”

A senior BJP cabinet minister admitted, “Frankly speaking, I had my apprehensions about online forms for farmers. But I must admit within two months farmers with the help of our 3500 centres adopted the digital process. Out of 1.36 crore farmers, we received applications from 1.05 crore farmers.”

In the last three years, 14,000 out of 29,000 gram panchayats have gone digital, while the remaining will be digitally transformed by December 2018.

The state government’s flagship project ‘Jalyukata Shivar’ is being cited as a model in which transparency is enhanced. As many as two lakh works have bee completed with a meagre budget of Rs 2936 crore which have helped make 11,494 villages drought free and brought 21 lakh hectares of land under irrigation and created water storage capacity of 15.74 TMC.

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