Vishav Bharti
Chandigarh, July 12
An inquiry conducted for 2018-19 by the government into the Rs 1,178-crore agriculture machinery scam had found that Rs 35 crore subsidy was transferred to the beneficiaries’accounts multiple times in just a year.
Rs 1,178-CR AGRI MACHINERY SCAM
- The then Agriculture Minister, Randeep Nabha, in a letter to PM Narendra Modi, blew the lid off Rs 1,178-crore scam that took place in his own govt
- Demanding a CBI probe, Nabha claimed Rs 1,178 crore central subsidy was given for four years to buy agriculture machinery, which was never bought
- Subsequently, the ED started a probe into the matter under the PLMA and sought the records from the state Agriculture Department
Despite being aware of the embezzlement of the funds, the Agriculture Department officials still sent the utilisation certificate of the entire subsidy amount to the Government of India.
To control stubble burning, the Government of India provided Rs 1,178 crore subsidy in four years (2018-19 to 2021-22) to farmers for buying the crop residual management machinery. However, a large number of these banks remained on paper and the subsidy amount was embezzled by the officials. As per the documents available with The Tribune, the then Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Agriculture, got a detailed inquiry conducted into the alleged scam through a chartered accountant and found that “the subsidy that seems to have been given to the same beneficiaries multiple times is around Rs 35 crore”. He asked for a thorough investigation to establish as to how the duplicate subsidy had been given to the same beneficiaries and who was responsible for this.
The report also pointed out that at the same time the utilisation certificate of the entire subsidy had been sent to Government of India. “Please check each entry and submit a report within 15 days and ensure that any duplicate subsidy issued to any beneficiary is recovered in full. Also, the responsibility must be fixed and appropriate disciplinary action be taken,” it concluded.
However, the department failed to take any action. The issue was once again raised in November last year, when a three-member inquiry committee headed by the present Agriculture Secretary, Dilraj Singh Sandha, took note of the of inaction on the probe report pertaining to 2018-19.
Besides this, the last inquiry report had found that no proper record of the scheme was maintained. And despite giving such a huge amount in subsidy, no monitoring of the machinery was done on whether it helped in bringing down the stubble burning or not.
Beneficiaries got Rs 35 crore subsidy multiple times in 2018-19: Inquiry
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