This scam is real

The alleged scam in the State Agriculture department in selecting beneficiaries for the PM Kishan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) has taken an interesting turn. While Agriculture Minister Atul Bora had ordered an inquiry into it on May 6, and also placed the District Agricultural Officer of Barpeta under suspension, State BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass has taken a contradictory stand. Dass said in a press conference on Sunday that the alleged scam was nothing but a conspiracy by some anti-government elements to embarrass the Sarbananda Sonowal government. According to Dass, who is also an MLA from Sarbhog, a constituency in Barpeta district whose District Agricultural Officer has been placed under suspension, the government had taken several major initiatives to help the farmers of Assam through some of the schemes, and PM-KISAN is one of them. Dass has also claimed that there is a group of anti-government elements behind the scam in the PM-KISAN scheme, which has been trying to bring a bad name to the BJP government. Being an MLA from Barpeta district, Dass is also reportedly not happy with the suspension of the District Agriculture Officer. But then, Agriculture Minister Atul Bora has already gone on record that the District Agricultural Officer of Barpeta was suspended after 70% of funds under PM-KISAN scheme was allegedly provided to a number of persons who are non-farmers and are close to Panchayat representatives. While allegations have come from different districts that a number of persons who were not related to any kind of farming or agricultural activity were selected as beneficiaries to receive funds under PM-KISAN, Agriculture Minister Atul Bora had last week also ordered a departmental inquiry into the matter, and called for the report by May 15. Under the Scheme an income support of Rs 6,000 per year is given to all farmer families across the country in three equal installments of Rs 2000 each every four months. The fund is directly transferred to the beneficiary's bank account. The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the State Governments, in this case the Sonowal Government. Thus, this government will have to take the responsibility and blame of selecting beneficiaries who were not farmers and releasing funds to them. Interestingly, while anomalies have been reported from different districts, a number of ineligible persons who had received the money have recently returned the same in Nalbari district. Returning the money is a good gesture; but those who have done so should not go scot-free. Moreover, a departmental inquiry is not likely to yield results and identify the culprits because officers of the same department were involved in selection of the beneficiaries including the wrong people.