Jalandhar January 15:
The subsidy on high quality new wheat seed provided by the Centre to Punjab farmers, has been allegedly ‘pocketed’ by the Agriculture Department authorities instead.
In a bid to replace the aged strains of wheat, the seed of newer and early sowing varieties were sent to the state and a subsidy of Rs 500 per quintal was also announced for those who purchase the same.
BKU chief BS Rajewal has alleged that the subsidy was never passed on to the farmers and a sum of over Rs 40 crore had been pocketed by senior officers of the department. In fact, the seed was sold to private traders after the sowing period was over even though it had reached the department much in advance, he added.
The scam came to light after we made enquiries about the number of farmers who had sown the seed. The district chiefs of our union asked the respective Chief Agricultural Officers for the lists of the beneficiaries but all our efforts were stonewalled by these officers, he pointed out. When we took the RTI Act route, our men were asked to submit varying amounts from Rs 2, 000 to Rs 5, 000 for supplying the information, he said.
Many CAOs even criticised the complainants saying that they could get the seed for themselves and desist from espousing the cause of the farmers, he added. “How we can run away when the peasantry is passing through a crisis and the much touted administrative reforms initiated by the state have failed to take off,” he added. “It has also come to our knowledge that the officials are now trying to cover their tracks and are preparing bogus lists of the beneficiaries who will claim that they had got the seeds if and when they were questioned in this context in the future,” he added.
Rajewal said the department was duty bound to provide such lists to the public and it was also mandatory as per the provisions of the RTI Act. The time frame of one month to furnish the lists has lapsed and we will now approach the State Information Commission for further action, he added.
The subsidy on high quality new wheat seed provided by the Centre to Punjab farmers, has been allegedly ‘pocketed’ by the Agriculture Department authorities instead.
In a bid to replace the aged strains of wheat, the seed of newer and early sowing varieties were sent to the state and a subsidy of Rs 500 per quintal was also announced for those who purchase the same.
BKU chief BS Rajewal has alleged that the subsidy was never passed on to the farmers and a sum of over Rs 40 crore had been pocketed by senior officers of the department. In fact, the seed was sold to private traders after the sowing period was over even though it had reached the department much in advance, he added.
The scam came to light after we made enquiries about the number of farmers who had sown the seed. The district chiefs of our union asked the respective Chief Agricultural Officers for the lists of the beneficiaries but all our efforts were stonewalled by these officers, he pointed out. When we took the RTI Act route, our men were asked to submit varying amounts from Rs 2, 000 to Rs 5, 000 for supplying the information, he said.
Many CAOs even criticised the complainants saying that they could get the seed for themselves and desist from espousing the cause of the farmers, he added. “How we can run away when the peasantry is passing through a crisis and the much touted administrative reforms initiated by the state have failed to take off,” he added. “It has also come to our knowledge that the officials are now trying to cover their tracks and are preparing bogus lists of the beneficiaries who will claim that they had got the seeds if and when they were questioned in this context in the future,” he added.
Rajewal said the department was duty bound to provide such lists to the public and it was also mandatory as per the provisions of the RTI Act. The time frame of one month to furnish the lists has lapsed and we will now approach the State Information Commission for further action, he added.
