Kerala: Treasury sits on agriculture bills

Thiruvananthapuram: Bills pertaining to all the Government departments are usually asked to be submitted before the treasury by March 30. In the case of the agriculture department, despite the agriculture officers submitting the bills on time, treasury officials had informed that they would be sanctioning the dues on a queue basis. But one and a half months later, the agriculture department officers are in the dark on the pending bills.

Agriculture officials were already mowed under with work as by mid- March they were asked to take various central schemes before farmers. With less than 15 days for the fiscal year to end, they had a tough time reaching the schemes to farmers and then filing reports. So apart from the newly launched schemes, there were loads of other projects bills which had to be paid by the deadline of March 30 before the treasury.

 “My Krishi Bhavan had submitted all the bills by the March 30 deadline. Due to some rigid software, a majority of the Krishi Bhavan’s bills could not be saved on to the treasury bank’s account. But they told us that those pending bills would be treated in a queue system where they would be dealt with on a first come first basis. But unfortunately, even after May 15, we are tired of replying to the farmers requirements”, said a senior deputy director working in one of the southern districts to DC.

When DC enquired with other agriculture officials working in other districts, a majority of them said the same thing.  Another agriculture official belonging to central Travancore told DC that he too was expecting funds worth ' 30 lakhs to be released.

“Now, it looks like we will be asked to re-submit the bills so that the funds will be released in the next allotment. Farmers who are solely dependent on Government funds are facing the brunt of the situation. There are close to 1500 beneficiaries alone waiting under my Krishi Bhavan”, said another agriculture officer.

Meanwhile, a top agriculture directorate official told DC that he was not aware of the issue and sought time to make enquiries.