Haryana: CAG Report Says Benefits Worth Rs 42 Cr Under PM KISAN Disbursed to Non-Eligible Beneficiaries
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New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled before the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on March 22, found that Income Tax (I-T) payers, state government pensioners, deceased farmers and those who don’t own land reaped benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme worth over Rs 42 crore.
The PIV-KISAN, launched on February 2019, is a central government scheme that gives income support to all landholding farmer families in the country to augment their financial needs. Under the PM Kisan Yojana scheme, the government deposits Rs. 6000 per annum in three equal quarterly instalments of Rs 2000 each every four months into the bank accounts of eligible farmers who have registered and met the program's eligibility requirements
However, according to a report in The Tribune, the CAG report says that due to improper identification, non-verification and lapses in the monitoring of the PM-Kisan scheme, benefits amounting to Rs 1.31 crore were disbursed to the state government pensioners. These beneficiaries belonged to group C and above category and the audit has recommended the recovery of this amount.
For the audit, seven districts, 14 blocks (two blocks from each selected district) and 84 villages (six villages from each selected block) were randomly selected out of 22 districts, 140 blocks and 7,356 villages of Haryana. The audit was conducted in 2021.
The report states that as on June 1, 2021, the audit noticed that 3,131 ineligible farmers had received 16,802 instalments of Rs 2,000 each, amounting to Rs 3.36 crore. Out of these, only 51 farmers had refunded 207 instalments amounting to Rs 4.14 lakh.
Similarly, 38,109 income tax payees covered under this scheme had received 1,86,677 instalments of Rs 2,000 each, amounting to Rs 37.34 crore. Only four farmers had refunded 23 instalments, amounting to Rs 0.46 lakh. “Thus, an amount of Rs 40.70 crore has been released to ineligible and income tax payees, out of which only Rs 4.60 lakh has been recovered and an amount of Rs 40.65 crore is yet to be recovered,” says CAG.
The report in The Tribune also states that in a reply dated December 15, 2021, the Agriculture department stated that Rs 23.94 lakh had been recovered from 246 ineligible beneficiaries and Rs 138.02 lakh recovered from 1,455 income tax payee beneficiaries. 39 beneficiaries took benefits of Rs 4.48 lakh along with their spouse/minor children against the rules.
The audit identified 66 deceased beneficiaries too and 19 beneficiaries who didn’t own the land but received benefits of Rs 2.82 lakh.
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