Harvestors In Gravy

Tamil Nadu’s bureaucracy is infamous for its endemic corruption. But what unfolded during August set new benchmarks for looting public money—funds  meant for small/marginal farmers through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s well-inten­ded PM Kisan Scheme.

Taking opportunity of the pandemic, when physical verification of beneficiaries was not possible, state agricultural department officials enrolled over five lakh fake beneficiaries—mostly non-­farmers—and deposited Rs 2,000 each in their bank accounts. The money was shared amongst the officials, contracted data entry operators, owners of internet centres and unsuspecting villagers.

The modus operandi went like this: contract staff of the Agriculture Technology Management Agency and corrupt state officials form a syndicate and use the login and password of block level officials to enrol ineligible beneficiaries with the help of internet cafe owners. Many ineligible villagers, tempted into it by SHG members and local politicians, shared their Aadhaar and bank account details under the guise of getting Covid relief.

Officials were expected to verify applicants’ genuineness with land records and other details. Instead, they approved all—many from one family—who walked away with Rs 2,000 each (the second ins­t­alment of Rs 6,000) in their accounts, which was shared by the parties. Non-farmers who got Rs 2,000 were asked to shell out up to Rs 1,000 as commission.

“Red flags went up when there was a sudden spike of two lakh beneficiaries in Kaalkurichi district alone in July and August and Rs 7.3 crore got deposited in bank accounts. We also saw land holdings from one district being replicated in others. Officials were alerted as new beneficiaries cropped up in thousands in 12 other districts as well,” discloses state agriculture secretary Gagandeep Singh.

Once the leak was identified banks were asked to refund the amounts—Rs 32 crore has been recovered. Empty acc­ounts are frozen so that money that gets deposited can be recovered. The agricultural department has suspended 34 officials and dismissed 80 contractual employees. The state CB-CID has arres­ted 18 people so far.

The scam was the latest to blot the stained copybook of the state governm­ent, already plagued by the gutka scandal, favouritism in contracts by local bodies and the Bharat Net tender which had to be scrapped after terms were tweaked to favour one bidder. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palniswami blamed the Centre for relaxing enrolment norms and allowing online registration. He could not explain why mandatory verification for online registration was not adhered to.

“This appears to be a scam unique to Tamil Nadu where passwords of officials were misused, resulting in huge irregularities. We have had complaints from other states, like Assam, but not on this scale. Unless there is collaboration at the lower level, so many beneficiaries couldn’t have got money into accounts,” says Vivek Agarwal, CEO of PM Kisan.

The state BJP has pinned the blame on the state government, accusing it of inefficiency and corruption. “The government is trying to deflect blame instead of cracking down on corrupt bureaucrats. The Centre should launch its own parallel probe since the money for the PM Kisan comes from Delhi,” observes BJP spokesperson T. Narayanan.

Farm leader P.R. Pandian has sugges­ted a fresh state-wide survey of farm lands. “No survey has happened since 1984, after which many farmers partit­i­oned their lands. Only a fresh survey will help in issuing pattas to eligible farmers not covered by the scheme,” he says.

Even as authorities try to find and fix leakages in PM Kisan, another pet project of PM Modi—PMAY—under which housing for the poor is provided has begun to unravel in the state. Again, money meant for eligible beneficiaries has been diverted. At the heart of the scam are a few panchayat secretaries.

“Since the allocation for the PMAY scheme is nearly Rs 9,000 crores over a four-year period ending with 2019-20, the scam could have existed over this pe­r­iod and the money diverted could be in thousands of crores,” warns Congress MP Vishnu Prasad, who unearthed the scam in his constituency. The barrage of scams can do little good to the EPS government ahead of an election year.