Giridih, May 15: Banks here are clueless on who have been given Kisan Credit Cards — the most important benefit farmers have received so far.

Banks operating in Giridih have issued 4,481 Kisan Credit Cards in the last fiscal, but they claim they have no records of the cardholders and the loan amount issued to them. All they know is that they have given out loans worth Rs 9.33 crore under agriculture schemes.

Ironically, banks took over a month to process the cardholders’ data.

The Telegraph had approached S.K. Srivastava, the lead district manager of Giridih, for cardholders’ information soon after the end of the financial year. But he could give the data only this week. “I could not hand over the data earlier, as none of the other banks had sent me any information,” said Srivastava.

Recently, chief minister Madhu Koda expressed dissatisfaction over the scheme as farmers were not able to utilise the facility.

Union finance minister P. Chidambaram has announced a loan waiver for farmers. But when they approached banks for fresh loans their applications were rejected.

The situation was similar with the Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana. Under this loan scheme, only 246 unemployed youths have been given loans against the target of 375.

Banks have only achieved 60 per cent of their target for the year 2007-08. Under the scheme, Rs 2.85 crore has been borrowed. “Banks fear poor loan recovery as 90 per cent of the applicants are defaulters,” said Srivastava.

The Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana would come to a close and a new employment programme will begin soon.