Assam Rocked By Massive Fraud In PM-KISAN Scheme, Barpeta Emerges As Epicenter

GUWAHATI: An alleged scam in the PM-KISAN scheme in Assam has rocked the state, with Barpeta district emerging as the epicenter of the widespread fraud.

This scandal was exposed by a recent audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which disclosed that a staggering Rs 567 crore was disbursed to ineligible recipients in Assam, with Barpeta accounting for a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds.

To make matters worse, recovery efforts have been well short of satisfactory, with only 0.24% of the funds reclaimed, indicating significant lapses in monitoring and data management.

Notably, the Central Government launched the PM-KISAN scheme to provide financial assistance to small and marginal farmers but the initiative faced serious challenges in its implementation in Assam. 

The CAG’s audit found massive irregularities as almost a quarter of the total received applications were flagged as ineligible by the PM-KISAN portal and the Public Financial Management System (PFMS).

As many as 41,87,023 applications were received in the state between December 2018 and March 2021, with major discrepancies getting reported in 10,66,593 (25%) applications.

Later, an additional 15,59,286 ineligible applicants were identified owing to further investigations, bringing the total number of fraudulent entries to over 15.5 lakh.

It worth mentioning that Barpeta caught the attention of the auditors the most as the number of ineligible beneficiaries in the district was alarmingly high.

A verification exercise conducted between May and July 2020, prompted by complaints from the public, revealed that 11,72,685 beneficiaries in Barpeta—nearly 37% of the district’s total registrants—were ineligible. 

Furthermore, 72.54% of the ineligible beneficiaries statewide, or 11,31,152 individuals, could not be traced, pointing to large-scale fake entries in Barpeta and other districts.

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