Chandigarh, August 17
Punjab’s Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal has ordered vigilance probe into Rs 150 crore alleged scam detected in distribution of crop residue management machines in previous government.
As per departmental inquiry findings, out of 90,422 distributed machines, over 13 per cent of beneficiaries did not receive them.
Giving information in this regard, the Agriculture Minister said that the Central Sector Scheme on Promotion of Agriculture Mechanization for In-situ management of crop residue (CRM) was implemented by the Punjab government from the year 2018-19 to the year 2021-22.
He said that under this scheme, a total of 90,422 different machines had been provided to the beneficiary farmers/registered farmer groups/cooperative societies/FPOs and panchayats from the year 2018-19 to the year 2021-22. Out of these machines, 83,986 machines were provided by the Department of Agriculture and the remaining machines were provided by the registered cooperative societies.
Dhaliwal said that after receiving reports from many quarters about the scheme that the machines provided on subsidy under the scheme were not made available to eligible farmers, he directed the agriculture department to conduct a physical verification of the possession of the machines provided under the scheme from the year 2018-19 to the year 2021-22.
The Agriculture Minister disclosed that physical verification of 79,295 machines out of 83,986 machines provided by the department has been done till August 16, 2022, which is 94.4 per cent of the total machines. Out of these verified machines, a total of 11,275 machines (13 per cent) are not available with the beneficiaries.
Dhaliwal said that during the initial investigation by the department, it appears that Rs 125 to 150 crore have been misused. He has ordered meticulous investigation to initiate action against the perpetrators.
