15 districts of Punjab fail to submit report in Rs 1,178 cr agri-machinery scam

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 6

The Rs 1,178 crore agri-machinery subsidy scam seems to be haunting district officials as 15 out of the 23 districts have failed to submit the physical verification report despite the deadline getting over three weeks back.

In a communication sent on Friday, the Department of Agriculture has asked 15 district officials to either send the reports by Monday or face disciplinary action.

To control stubble burning, the Centre provided Rs 1,178 crore subsidy in four years (2018-19 to 2021-22) to farmers for buying crop-residual management machinery under In-Situ Crop Residual Management Scheme. However, a large number of these banks, which were supposed to rent out the machines to the farmers, remained on paper and the subsidy amount was “embezzled” by the officials.

Following a series of stories by The Tribune, the Punjab Government on July 1 had ordered audit and physical verification of each of the 90,000 machines which were purchased across the state with the Centre’s subsidy.

The officials were asked to furnish the details including name of the beneficiary, name of village, the amount of subsidy received by the farmer, Aadhaar number of the farmer and details of the machine.

The officials had been asked to check whether the machine was physically present on the ground or not. The verification was to be completed within 15 days. Out of 23 districts, just eight have submitted their reports. The districts that have submitted the reports are Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Pathankot, SBS Nagar, SAS Nagar and Tarn Taran.

Taking note of the lethargic attitude of Agriculture Officers of the remaining 15 districts, the Department of Agriculture has asked them either to immediately submit the reports or be ready to face disciplinary action.

The department has asked the officials to submit the reports by Monday.

Respond by Monday or face action

Taking note of the lethargic attitude of Agriculture Officers of 15 districts, the Department of Agriculture has asked them either to submit the reports by Monday or be ready to face disciplinary action.

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