| The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) today refuted charges that there was a Rs 3,600-crore scam in sanctioning projects under a tie-up arrangement. |
| The federation has also decided to file a defamation case in a day or two against a private television news channel for telecasting a story titled "Nafed scam". |
| "Commercial activities aimed at supplementing Nafed's core activities to help the farmers under various schemes have been implemented. The interest rate model that the federation has used in the tie-up arrangements has been in place since 1999 and used by other federations like MMTC Ltd, STC Ltd and various state-level cooperative federations," said Alok Ranjan, Nafed's managing director. |
| In a petition filed in November before the Delhi High Court alleging rampant corruption in illegal disbursal of loans involving about Rs 3,600 crore, the petitioner had yesterday submitted an additional affidavit alleging that the Nafed management connived to misappropriate funds meant for its development. |
| In an affidavit filed in the court, counsel Sugriv Dubey for petitioner and a social activist Vikas Jain said Nafed had got back Rs 1,143 crore between 2003 and 2005 as principal amount and not a single rupee was shown as interest. |
| The management had also reduced the interest rate from 13 per cent to 9 per cent on a loan amount of Rs 30 crore given to a firm called DS Constructions, and a loan of Rs 150 crore to Uppal Housing Pvt Ltd and took 1 per cent as service charge instead of 2 per cent in keeping with norms, the petition stated. |
| On Nafed's response to the petition, Ranjan said, "We will do it on February 1, as sought by the high court." He added that Nafed was an autonomous body and that the government did not hold any equity in it. |
| "Further, in the changed business scenario, Nafed had to diversify as government-aided businesses were no longer available to it," he added. |
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