By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sept 24: The Comptroller and Auditor General picked holes in the Meghalaya government’s implementation of PM-KISAN, casting doubt over the genuineness of the beneficiaries of the scheme.
The risk of claims by ineligible beneficiaries in the state cannot be ruled out, the CAG said.
PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi), a scheme with 100% funding from the Centre through direct benefit transfer, was launched in February 2019 to provide income support and risk mitigation for farmers.
Under this scheme, eligible farmers get income support of Rs 6,000 per annum for meeting expenses relating to agriculture and allied activities, as well as for domestic needs. The financial support is released in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 every four months.
According to the CAG report, the land-holding document or record, which is the main criterion for the identification or selection of beneficiaries for the scheme, was not checked properly and the laid-down norms were not followed. The district agriculture officers did not follow the prescribed format of land holding certificate by the MAFW and HLC, it said.
The genuineness of the beneficiaries being covered under the scheme is doubtful and the risk of claims by ineligible beneficiaries cannot be ruled out since the land area being covered under the scheme exceeds the total cultivable land by a whopping 6,63,053.07 hectares (214%), the report said.
The CAG also stated that the department has yet to link beneficiaries’ data with unique biometric identification-seeded data. The updating and validation of the data of the beneficiaries have not been done properly, it said.
The report stated that these deficiencies resulted in the extension of scheme benefits to ineligible beneficiaries such as disbursement to both husband and wife, double payment to the same beneficiaries and transfer of benefits to multiple beneficiaries with the same bank account. The non-setting up of a PMU at the state level also resulted in the absence of overall monitoring at a higher level, the report added.
Based on these findings, the CAG advised the state government to conduct a survey of land to ensure the identification of farmers or beneficiaries based on the land-holding system according to the instructions of the MAFW and HLC. It also asked the government to ensure that the certificate of land holding is not allowed to be uploaded without the counter-signature of the designated authority.
The government may investigate the reasons for not following the scheme norms by the district agriculture offices and fix responsibility accordingly, the CAG said.
The state government may carry out a comprehensive review of the land records submitted by the beneficiaries to rule out fraudulent claims of scheme benefits and fix the responsibility of the officials involved in deficient scrutiny of documents, it recommended.
The state government may adjust payments made to both husband and wife from subsequent instalments or recover the amount and responsibility be fixed after a detailed investigation, the CAG said.
Immediate steps should be taken to link registered beneficiaries with unique biometric identification-seeded data and make it mandatory for new registration, and the banks may be instructed to ensure the updating of KYC documents of all beneficiaries before releasing any future payments, the audit body advised.
The state government may investigate issues of double payment and registration of different beneficiaries with the same bank account numbers and fix responsibility accordingly. The double payments may be adjusted from subsequent instalments or recovered from respective beneficiaries, the CAG said.
It also said the department should ensure that corrective action is taken promptly against failed transactions so that scheme benefits are not denied or delayed to the eligible beneficiaries.
The state government may expedite the setting up of SPMU at the state level for the overall monitoring of the scheme besides ensuring the availability of funds for administrative expenses, and monitoring should be strengthened to remove ineligible beneficiaries and include the left-out eligible beneficiaries, the CAG said.