Over 53K Punjab farmers yet to get relief for not burning straw
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, February 26
The highly orchestrated campaign against stubble burning, under which the state government was paying a relief of Rs 2,500 per acre to farmers who had desisted from the practice, seems to have fizzled out.
Fake entries ‘scam’ unearthed
- Many dubious and fake entries uploaded on the portal in Sangrur and Fazilka districts in last November had raised alarm as the relief amount was transferred in the bank accounts of farmers who are landlords and had burnt stubble
- After getting a clue of the ‘scam’, the state had suspended the portal for two days and resumed it with caution
About four months after as many as 1,15,835 farmers submitted their applications for compensation to the state government, 42,466 were approved. While 53,279 applications are still pending with patwaris (47,416), kanungos (2,234), tehsildar (352) and SDMs (3,277) for verification and 19,790 have been rejected, said highly placed sources in the Agriculture Department.
About two weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the state to compensate the farmers who did not burn stubble in their fields and the latter invited the applications, the government suspended the payment after receiving complaints that some ineligible people had received the amount.
As the state government ordered the reverification of all applicants in mid-November last year, four months down the line and a large number of these applications are still pending for verification.
Moreover, in 11 of the total 22 districts in the state, including Tarn Taran, SBS Nagar, Mohali, Pathankot, Moga, Mansa, Hoshiarpur, not even a single application for compensation has been approved so far.
In Faridkot, of 2,404 applications received, 1,666 have been approved, 293 rejected and 445 are pending for verification. In Muktsar, of 14,998 applications, 9,985 have been approved. In Patiala, of 6,988 applications, 3,814 approved and 3,174 were rejected. Bathinda district has 4,224 approved applications of 6,250.
Maximum applications for compensation was received in Tarn Taran district (17,547), followed by 16,024 in Ludhiana and 12,318 in Jalandhar. Minimum applications were received in Pathankot (304), Gurdaspur (356), Ropar (543).
Faridkot DC Kumar Saurabh Raj said: “After the alleged scam of ineligible getting the relief, we are now relying on strict verification so that only genuine farmers are benefitted. We are updating the cases on a daily basis.”
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