A day after the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) exposed serious discrepancies in the implementation of the Rs 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered banks to scan all beneficiaries.

The RBI ordered banks to verify if each & every beneficiary had qualified under the scheme. It stressed that the beneficiaries' lists needed complete verification, given the serious nature of observations made by CAG.

The central bank informed bankers that debt waiver or relief certificates must be issued in all eligible cases under the scheme immediately and all records related to such issuances should be kept ready for scrutiny.

The central bank said in a statement, "Considering the serious nature of observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The beneficiaries' lists need complete verification with priority being given to areas where indebtedness was high."

The RBI also asked banks to immediately recover the full amount in cases where beneficiaries ineligible for the loan waiver scheme.

In its report on agricultural debt waiver scheme for marginal and small farmers, the CAG said on Tuesday that there were serious lapses and errors in more than 20,000 cases, out of the total 90,576 cases, that were test checked by the national auditor. The report added that in 8.5 per cent of the cases ineligible people were granted the benefits, to the tune of around Rs 20.5 crore.