Rs 2 crores meant for fertilizers to farmers misused
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 11 2011:
An amount of Rs 2 crores which was sanctioned by the state cabinet for procuring fertilizers at subsidized rate for farmers who were suffering from its scarcity during the 120 days economic blockade, have been misused, alleged Fertilizer Monitoring Committee.
Speaking at a press conference held at Manipur Press Club today, delegates of the Fertilizer Monitoring Committee and fertilizer dealers informed that, considering the problems faced by the farmers during the economic blockade, the state cabinet in its meeting held on June 10, 2011, had sanctioned an amount of Rs 2 crores for procuring fertilizers for the farmers of the state at subsidized rates.
From the total amount sanctioned, a mere Rs 78,10,600 have been used for the said purpose and the remaining Rs 1,21,89,400 have been misused.
A meeting was convened by the State Agriculture Minister, where the All Manipur Progressive Farmers Association and the Loumi Sinmi Apunba Lup took part resulting in the formation of the Fertilizer Monitoring Committee on June 22, 2011.A number of MLAs are also the members of the committee, the delegates added.
They further said that after the formation of the Monitoring Committee, fertilizers were procured for the state from different fertilizer companies in Assam.
During the tenures of Gopen and N Achou as secretaries of the committee, fertilizer bags amounting to Rs 78,10,600 were procured but there is no accounting for the remaining amount of Rs 1,21,89,400 .
The reason behind the sky high prices of fertilizers even after the constitution of Fertilizer Monitoring Committee may be because of the fact that from the 53,160 bags of fertilizers procured from BVFCL, Namrup between June 20 and August 31, only 33,371 bags reached the Monitoring Committee, as some of the dealers diverted the remaining fertilizer bags.
Another 45860 fertilizer bags out of 60000 were also diverted on the way and never reached the Monitoring Committee.
Altogether 47511 bags of fertilizers were made available to the farmers at subsidized rate from the total 113160 bags procured, the delagates said.
The delegates of the Fertilizer Monitoring Committee and dealers demanded that the Agriculture Minister, Director and Nodal Officers should be held responsible for the misused funds and come out with specific solutions or else the Union Agriculture Ministry will be notified about the incident.
They also demanded taking up strategic policies to curb the misuse of funds meant for the farming community and also said that the extra amount charged for fertilizers during the economic blockade should be refunded.
L Ranjit, President of Loumi Sinmi Apunba Lup, Thoiba Meetei, Secretary of All Manipur Progressive Farmers Association and Dealer L Bijoy were also present on the occasion.