SMAM: Farmers seek CM's intervention
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 27 2021: Claiming lack of transparency in selecting beneficiaries by the Agriculture Department for giving subsidy on farm machinery and equipment under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) scheme, Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Agriculture Minister Oinam Lukhoi Singh have been urged by many farmers to look into the matter.

It may be mentioned that the Agriculture Department had issued a notification on November 27 last year inviting applications from interested farmers and groups of farmers for selecting beneficiaries for the year 2020-21 .

The notification mentioned December 18 as the last date.

As per the notification, the applications must be submitted to the District Agricultural Officers (DAOs) concerned and the responsibility of selecting the bene- ficiaries lies with the District Level Executive Committees (DLECs) which has the respective Deputy Commissioners as chairman and District Agriculture Officers (DAOs) as member.

The beneficiaries are to be selected via draw of lots.

The last date for submission of applications was extended to December 31 by another notice issued on December 18, 2020 .

Earlier, the beneficiaries were selected by the Directorate.

However, the beneficiaries for this financial year were selected by the DLEC and the names of selected farmers had been sent to the Directorate.

In this regard, The Sangai Express met some farmers and took their opinions.

One such applicant said that that the selection process lacks transparency as details of applicants attending draw of lots, number of beneficiaries to be selected and names of those shortlisted by the DLEC are not made public.

Asserting that there is a possibility of altering the list of beneficiaries already submitted to the Directorate, he urged the Chief Minister and the Agriculture Minister to display the list of selected beneficiaries and applicants attending the draw of lots on the notice board of the concerned DAO's offices to clear people's suspicion.

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