No one at the Agriculture directorate knows how the 250 pump sets stocked at the Lamphelpat godown of the department was disposed off except maybe for a few loyal officials. But they knew the pump sets were distributed by the concerned minister after a drought like situation began to develop in the state. This is indeed unthinkable. Although preferential treatment by concerned ministers is a practice in normal times, the minister should have adhered to the standard operating procedure in a drought situation. The 250 pump sets should have been distributed to the most affected areas, on the advice of the experts in the department and not on the recommendation of the powerful ministers or MLAs. We have had enough bungling with the feud between the Agriculture Minister Md Nasir and the Agriculture Director L Palendro and the state government dragging its legs in tackling the drought situation and now this is the latest scandal. The Minister and the Agriculture Department need to come clean on how the 250 pump sets were distributed and on what criteria the beneficiaries were selected without waiting for a farmers’ revolt. While the stock of pump sets have been exhausted, the minister is still forwarding DO letters of Ministers and MLAs to the department. What does this mean? Had he been misinformed by the said loyal officials or is he trying to deny knowledge of the stock in the godown. Something is wrong with the department and it is for the Chief Minister to clean up the mess. So much so for the 250 pump sets. How is the government going to act on the cabinet decision for distribution of 400 number of pump sets to farmer societies? The funds required for purchasing the pump sets have not been sanctioned by the government as of date, as the government is yet to submit the utilization certificate for the RKVY funds amounting to 11.12 crore sanctioned to the Agriculture department for the fiscal year 2011-12. The amount is still lying at the 8449 state suspense account awaiting release. So, only after the utilization certificate of the amount is forwarded to the Union Agriculture Ministry the additional RKVY funds would be sanctioned. A cabinet meeting held on August 6 had reviewed the drought like situation in the state and had approved an action plan. The plan includes distribution of 400 pump sets to farmer societies in rainfall deficit areas. According to the cabinet resolution, the plan to augment crop production and other distribution items for farmers was estimated at Rs 11.06 crores. The funds will be sanctioned by the Ministry of Agriculture to the State under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY). The total amount earmarked for the state is approximately 53.12 crore, the source added. The RKVY funds are not meant for the Agriculture department alone but will also be distributed to seven line departments inclusive of the Horticulture and soil Conservation and Co-operation etc. A state level standing committee will decide how much funds will be sanctioned to the respective departments after the disbursement from the Ministry. Afterwards, the earmarked fund of Rs 11.06 crore will be sanctioned to the Agriculture department. In recent times, the 8449 suspense account have been misused enough mainly by the engineering departments and departments having central sponsored schemes like the RKVY. The present case in the drought related measure is also part of the series of bungling in the Agriculture sector. Perhaps, the state cabinet was not properly briefed on the existing financial condition of the department concerned whether due to the internal feud between the Minister and the Director or the state cabinet chose to ignore the briefings of the Agriculture department. Rains have stopped again and the levels of the major rivers are decreasing again. The month of September is approaching and the Indian Meteorological Department has predicted fewer rains in the month. Yet, the state department is fiddling.
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