From ineligible beneficiaries to poor recovery of funds, CAG detects lapses in PM-KISAN in Assam

Guwahati: Implementation of the Centre's flagship 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi' (PM-KISAN) scheme in Assam has been plagued by problems, ranging from 35 per cent of the applicants being found ineligible to the recovery of a mere 0.24 per cent of funds released to these non-entitled beneficiaries, as detected by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

A performance audit of the scheme from December 2018 to March 2021 found that out of the 41,87,023 applications from the state, 10,66,593 (25 per cent) were rejected by PM-KISAN portal and Public Financial Management System.

Subsequently, the state government declared that 11,72,685 (37 per cent) out of the 31,20,430 beneficiaries were ineligible through an inquiry conducted from May-July 2020 across the state.

A mere 0.24 per cent of the funds released to these ineligible beneficiaries were received back till October 2021, which was not refunded to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the CAG report, tabled in the state assembly recently, said.

The CAG report also pointed out that the inquiry initiated in May 2020 on order of the chief minister, following complaints from different quarters regarding anomalies in the beneficiaries list, had found 15,59,286 ineligible names during verification across the state from May to July 2020.

Among the different categories of ineligible beneficiaries were non-farmer beneficiaries, government employees and pensioners, and multiple entries.

As per the verification report, 11,31,152 (72.54 per cent) of over 15 lakh ineligible beneficiaries were found to be untraceable.

When the auditors pointed to the difference in the figure of ineligible beneficiaries furnished by the state nodal officer (SNO) (11,72,685) and the one mentioned in the report of verification (15,59,286), the state government said that "another verification was being conducted and as such, the figure was dynamic".

The audit, carried out in 10 districts selected based on saturation level of beneficiaries, found lack of monitoring and non-adherence to guidelines for the implementation of the scheme at various stages.

In addition to the 10 districts, Barpeta was also selected considering the largest number of ineligible beneficiaries in the state.

Twenty-two blocks from the selected 11 districts, with three villages in each block, were taken for the audit, covering 15 beneficiaries' records (totalling 990) each from the selected villages.

The performance audit revealed that the state government did not maintain a database of landholding farmer families to identify potential beneficiaries.

Emphasis was given to uploading a large number of beneficiaries' data within a short period of time instead of ensuring the eligibility of the beneficiaries as per provisions of the scheme.

Lack of monitoring by supervisory officers also adversely affected implementation of the scheme, the audit report said.

It also maintained that the audit exercise was "adversely affected due to lack of cooperation towards furnishing records/information by the Director of Agriculture".

Analysis of SNO database by the audit detected that fake registration numbers were created by zeros at the beginning of the bank account numbers, as a result of which multiple benefits were credited to the same bank account against multiple registrations.

The audit found 3,577 such registrations in 16 out of 33 districts against which Rs 3.01 crore was released, the report added.

It also noticed that multiple registrations were done using the same bank account in respect of 3,104 beneficiaries in 10 districts, though no benefits were released to these beneficiaries.

The audit also found that funds were released to beneficiaries with names containing jumbled letters or special characters.

Scrutiny of records revealed that out of Rs 2.18 crore received towards administrative expenses, the SNO submitted utilisation certificate (UC) of only Rs 77 lakh to the Government of India, with the UCs for the remaining not furnished till October 2021.

The exercise of physical verification of beneficiaries by the supervisory officers was not given the due importance in the state, which not only violated provisions of the operational guidelines but also pointed towards ineffective monitoring and supervision of implementation of the scheme in the state, the CAG report said.

The state government, which accepting the audit observations, said in February 2022 that 100 per cent re-verification is being conducted since June 2021 through revenue officials under the supervision of the deputy commissioners and the Principal Secretary of the Sixth Schedule areas, the report added.