Govt denies lapses in purchase of farm equipment

Chandigarh, October 21

The state government on Sunday rejected as “baseless and unfounded” allegations of mismanagement in the purchase of machinery for in situ management of crop residue and said the whole process was being carried out under the supervision of the Union Government’s task force headed by Agriculture Secretary.

The official statement has come after the SAD demanded a CBI probe into the purchase of machinery by the Congress government for managing paddy straw, alleging that the farm equipment had been purchased at nearly “double” the market rate.

A spokesperson of the Agriculture Department said the quality standards and prices of agro-machines for managing paddy straw in the states of Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi had been fixed by a task force at the central level.

Top functionaries of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and NITI Aayog besides representatives of all four states are the members of the committee constituted to formulate and monitor the roll out of the scheme for paddy residue management and its time-bound implementation.

The spokesperson said the specification and pricing of machines had been fixed by technical teams consisting of representatives of Agricultural Universities of Punjab, Haryana, ICAR, central government machine testing centres and technical members from the states.

Quality audits have also been conducted at the premises of manufacturers by special teams.

The official said the prices of equipment were, by and large, on a par with the prices prevalent last year, except for some increase that occurred due to increased steel prices and mainly due to imposition of GST ranging from 12 per cent to 28 per cent on agriculture machinery, whereas there was almost no such tax on agri-machines in previous years. — PTI