13 years on, Vigilance registers FIR against Haryana horticulture officers

The Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SV&ACB), Haryana, has registered a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, and under the Prevention of Corruption Act, over missing mangoes and sapota orchards in Yamunanagar. The then District Horticulture Officer (DHO), Sudhir Yadav, and the then Horticulture Development Officer, Soren Singh, have been booked.

The matter pertains to 2007-08 to 2012-13, but the FIR has been registered after 13 years.

As per the FIR, embezzlement of funds was detected in a scheme to help farmers set up orchards. It was found that at Rajhedi village in Yamunanagar, Narayan Singh, Gulshan Kumar and Nirmal Kumar set up a mango orchard on 10 acres each in 2006-07, while Sudesh Kumari set up a sapota orchard on 5 acres. However, none of the plants survived.

The farmers said instead of Rs 32,000 to be paid by the department for a single pit for planting a sapling, only Rs 15,000 was paid. They further said none of the officers visited their fields. Another farmer, Sher Singh, said he had not received any plants or other inputs. However, records reflect that he received help in setting up an orchard on 1 acre. At Alahad village, a farmer, Surender, has 13 mango trees on 3 kanals, whereas in the records he received help for a 1-acre farm.

The FIR said for the rejuvenation of old orchards, Yamunanagar district was assigned a target of 110 hectares of mango orchards; however, DHO Sudhir Kumar Yadav caused a financial loss of Rs 16.5 lakh to the department by failing to adhere to the guidelines.

Flower seeds distributed in off-season

Under the Shivalik Development Scheme, a budget provision of Rs 8.30 lakh was made for providing a 50 per cent subsidy on horticulture activities. The FIR said DHO Sudhir Yadav, who purchased vegetable and flower seeds, distributed them to farmers in the off-season, and vegetable seeds worth Rs 6.30 lakh were not distributed to the beneficiaries. “These (vegetable seeds) remained lying in the office and got expired…the DHO misused Rs 8.30 lakh, defeating the purpose of the scheme,” added the FIR.

Substandard seeds

Investigation revealed that from 2007-08 to 2012-13, 82 cases of substandard seeds were reported in Rohtak, Sirsa, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Rewari, and Mahendragarh districts, but no DHO-cum-Seed Inspector filed a case in court, as per the Seed Act, but disposed them of on their own. No officer of the department has any power to settle the case.

“This has caused financial loss to the government and constituted misuse of power,” said the FIR.

Vermicomposting unit missing at village

A huge subsidy was given to farmers in the implementation of the organic farming scheme. The investigating officer found that a vermicomposting unit was shown to have been installed by Ramesh Kumar in village Alahad in the records, but no unit was found. Funds were released for a farmer to set up a plant on a 500-sq-ft area in the same village. However, the farmer had destroyed half of the unit area.