Chandigarh, November 19
Even as the Punjab Government made tall claims about steps to battle farm fires, the Agriculture Department failed to disburse subsidy for crop residue machinery on time.
Of the 46,460 machines sanctioned for farmers in the state, only 16,645 were purchased till November, said Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua, who recently pulled up top officials for “tardy implementation” of the crop residue management scheme. In a letter to Sarvjit Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Janjua said, “I have taken an adverse view of non-disbursal of subsidy to farmers, who have purchased machines to manage crop residue.”
Acting on the matter, Sarvjit Singh asked Agriculture Director Gurvinder Singh to prepare a list of districts lagging in the implementation of the scheme. The latter said the process was taking longer as they were physically verifying the machines on ground. He said they had released Rs 75 crore and were hopeful of disbursing another Rs 15 crore till Sunday. “In the past, some beneficiaries got subsidy without actually buying the machinery. We are now physically verifying the machines. The process is taking a little longer,” he said, adding the department had conducted verification of machines worth Rs 200 crore so far.
Between 2018-19 and 2021-22, 90,422 crop residue management machines worth Rs 1,178 crore were provided to the beneficiaries. Of these, 11,275 were found missing.