Machinery worth Rs 100 cr found missing, says report on agri scam

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 9

A report submitted on Monday in Rs 1,178 crore agri-machinery subsidy scam has revealed that 11 per cent of the machinery is untraceable in 20 districts.

In terms of financial implication, the machinery worth Rs 100 crore remains missing.

According to sources in the government, three districts have failed to submit their reports, where the number of missing machinery is the highest.

After The Tribune did a series of stories, the state government had ordered an audit and physical verification of each of the 90,000 machines, which were purchased across the state with Centre’s subsidy. The officials were asked to furnish the details, including name of the beneficiary, village name, the amount of subsidy received by the farmer, Aadhaar number of the farmer and details of the machine. The officials have been asked to check whether the machine was physically present on the ground or not. The verification was to be completed within 15 days.

As per the reports submitted by 20 districts, 11 per cent machines have remained untraceable. The districts where the number is high are Faridkot (23 per cent) followed by Ferozepur (17 per cent), Amritsar and Gurdaspur (14 per cent each), Fazilka (13 per cent) and Bathinda (12 per cent).

Earlier, officials of 15 districts had failed to submit the reports. Taking note of the lethargic attitude of agriculture officers, the Department of Agriculture has asked them either to immediately submit the reports by Monday or be ready to face disciplinary action.

Significantly, to control stubble-burning, the Union Government had provided Rs 1,178 crore subsidy in four years (2018-19 to 2021-22) to farmers for buying the crop residual management machinery under In-Setu Crop Residual Management Scheme. However, the subsidy amount was embezzled by the officials.

The Tribune had, on October 18, 2019, highlighted that 34 farm machinery banks in Bathinda were supposed to be established with the help of 80 per cent Central subsidy. The state received the subsidy, but a large number of the farm machinery banks remained only on paper

The previous Congress government had failed to act on time and the scam continued for the next three years. When the matter was flagged, the previous government tried to cover it up.

Farm equipment banks not set up

• In all, 34 farm machinery banks were supposed to be set up in Bathinda with the help of 80% Central subsidy
• The state received the subsidy, but a large number of the farm machinery banks remained only on paper
• When the matter was flagged, the previous Congress government tried to cover it up
• As per the reports submitted by 20 districts, 11 per cent machines have remained untraceable

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