Kerala: Many farmers to miss Onam pension

Thiruvananthapuram: Many farmers eligible for the monthly Karshaka pension may miss it this Onam owing to a delay in sending out orders to disburse the enhanced pension. Sources said verbal orders to disburse Karshaka pension reached officers concerned on Friday. But the instruction was to hold back arrears and disburse the enhanced pension of Rs 1,000 for June. Source confirmed that an allotment of Rs 36 crore was made and officers were authorized to distribute it even without written orders.

Unless the State Government resorts to the unprecedented step of opening the treasury during closed holidays and putting officers to extra work, many farmers will have to wait till September 17, till after Onam holidays, to receive the pension. In many cases, the monthly pension has been in arrears since February. Agriculture directorate sources said their daylong efforts to draft the order and communicate it to district officials did not materialize. Most of the agriculture officers at Krishi Bhavans, authorized to distribute the pension, were preoccupied with Onam vegetable markets and other duties and responsibilities so much so that the last-minute instruction on pension remained pending.   

Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar had announced that farmer’s pension along with three months’ arrears would be disbursed before Onam even though there were complaints of fake pensioners. The last Cabinet sanctioned Rs 156 crore for distributing pension and arrears to 356,000 indigent farmers. On the ground, the instruction to hold back arrears and disburse the enhanced pension had created some confusion among officers because the practice has been to clear welfare pension arrears and keep the disbursals up to date.