5.38 lakh ineligible farmers claimed money under PM Kisan scheme in Tamil Nadu: Centre

Over 5.38 lakh “ineligible” farmers have claimed money under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme in Tamil Nadu and 52 persons, including government officials, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the scam, the Centre said on Wednesday.

The scam came into light in August after government officials found ineligible farmers have claimed money under the scheme aimed at providing subsidy to farmers across the country. The Tamil Nadu government transferred the case to the CB-CID wing which formed a special team to investigate the case.

In a reply to questions raised by DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar admitted that reports of ineligible persons being registered under PM-KISAN scheme were received from the Government of Tamil Nadu.

“Since the entire responsibility of identifying the eligible landholder farmer families is of the State/UT Governments, the State Government conducted detailed investigations in the matter. It was found that some unscrupulous elements had misused the login-id and password credentials of district officials under the scheme for bulk booking of ineligible persons,” the minister said.

He said out of 5.95 lakh beneficiaries accounts verified till September 15, 2020, 5.38 lakh beneficiaries were found ineligible. On the action taken against officials, Tomar said while the services of 96 contractual staff were terminated, departmental Action was initiated against 34 officers responsible for enrollment of ineligible beneficiaries.

“Three Block level officers and 5 Assistant Agricultural Officers, who were found responsible for misuse of passwords, were suspended. FIR filed in 13 districts. 52 persons including contractual staff were arrested,” he added. The minister said so far, an amount of Rs 61 crore has been recovered from the ineligible beneficiaries.

Tamil Nadu Agriculture Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi had earlier this month said initial investigations have found Rs 110 crore has been transferred to ineligible farmers and that the district administrations have been asked to ensure that the money is transferred back to the government.

Tomar added that the Tamil Nadu Government has taken action to strengthen the system by preparing a Standard Operating Procedure in consultation with the Centre to avoid such incidents in future.

Eligible farmers get an assistance of Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments under the scheme and the scam came to light in the second week of August when district collectors noticed unusually large numbers of beneficiaries being added to the scheme.

Some officials of the government departments colluded with computer centres and tech-savvy individuals to lure ineligible farmers and got their Aadhar cards to get them registered for the scheme, as the district administrations were busy in Covid-19 containment efforts. They also hacked the passwords to manipulate the system.

By getting ineligible farmers registered, these individuals made money by collecting half of the Rs 2,000 that the “fake beneficiaries” received in their bank accounts. While Kallakurichi and Villupuram is the “epicentre” of the scam, thousands of fake accounts have been found in districts such as Kanchipuram, Ranipet, Villupuram, Krishnagiri, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Salem, and Dharmapuri.

“The Covid-19 period was used to register the fake beneficiaries by individuals and some officials using passwords. The scheme also allows farmers to register themselves and some individuals used this opportunity to make money. We have found 5 to 5.5 lakh fake accounts and have so far recovered Rs 32 crore,” Bedi had said on September 8.