Chandigarh, August 11
After a report revealed that agriculture machinery worth Rs 100 crore has been missing in 20 districts, the government is going to hand over the probe into Rs 1,178-crore scam to the Vigilance Bureau (VB).
Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Sarvjit Singh confirmed that he had sent the inquiry report to the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kuldeep Dhaliwal, for conducting a VB probe.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Dilraj Singh Sandhawalia had said that since the department had already conducted an inquiry and machines worth over Rs 100 crore had been found missing, justice could now be done by a government probe agency.
A report submitted on Monday had revealed that 11 to 12 per cent of the machinery is untraceable in the state. In terms of financial implication, the machinery worth Rs 100 crore remains missing.
After a series of stories done by The Tribune, the Punjab Government on July 1 ordered the audit and physical verification of each of the 90,000 machines, which were purchased across the state with the Centre’s subsidy. The officials were asked to furnish the details, including the name of the beneficiary and village, the amount of subsidy received by the farmer, Aadhaar card number and information about the machine. The officials have also been asked to check whether the machine was physically present on the ground or not. The verification was to be completed within 15 days.
Significantly, to control stubble burning, the Centre had provided Rs 1,178 crore subsidy in four years (2018-19 to 2021-22) to farmers for individual buying as well as setting up the machinery banks for crop residual management under the In-Situ Crop Residue Management Scheme. However, a large number of these banks remained on paper and the subsidy amount was embezzled by the officials.
The previous Congress government had failed to act on time and the scam continued for the next three years. Ex-Agriculture Minister Randeep Nabha had claimed the Central subsidy of Rs 1,178 crore was given for four years for buying machinery. However, the equipment was never bought, he had claimed.