Five lakh Tamil Nadu fraudsters swindle Rs 110 crore in PM Kisan Scheme

CHENNAI: The unfolding PM Kisan Scheme fraud is gaining mammoth proportions with close to 50% of the districts in Tamil Nadu reporting falsification of records by ineligible beneficiaries. The state agriculture department’s inquiry in the last few weeks shows that there are more than 5 lakh fake entries on the beneficiaries’ list, mostly from northern and western districts, and the exchequer has lost Rs 110 crore to fraudsters. The department has recovered Rs 32 crore so far, said state agriculture secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi.
The government has suspended three assistant directors in the agriculture department, initiated departmental action against 34 officials and dismissed 80 contractual staff for their alleged involvement in the scam. So far, 18 people have been arrested by the CB-CID team investigating the case, he said. The epicentre of the scam is Villupuram and Kallakurichi districts, he said.
Most fake entries were made during the lockdown period, mostly from June this year, taking advantage of the option given to left out farmers to file applications online. Inability of officials to do field-level verification during the pandemic turned out to be an added advantage to fraudsters. The extent of misuse of the central government scheme can be gauged from the fact that people living in places like Alandur, Ambattur, Maduravoyal, Madhavaram, Sholinganallur and Tiruvottiyur in Greater Chennai, which has no agricultural land as per revenue records, have availed of the Central government dole. District-wise data put out by the PM Kisan Scheme website shows that Rs 7.6 lakh has been disbursed as assistance to farmers in Chennai district.
The state agricultural department has embarked on a massive verification drive to weed out every ineligible person from the scheme, said Bedi. Block-level agriculture and horticulture officers have been deployed to recover the money from those who have obtained the benefits fraudulently, he said. But even after identifying fake entries on the beneficiaries’ list, officials are struggling to recover the money disbursed to them as the entire money has been withdrawn from most bank accounts, said another official. Hence, district collectors and revenue machinery have been roped in to provide teeth to the recovery drive.