BJP MP got Rs 4.20-lakh subsidy to grow lemons on his farm: Centre’s reply in Parliament

The record shows Lumbaram applied for the subsidy in April 2021 and that the amount was transferred to his SBI bank account on January 15, 2025. The total cost of Lumba Ram’s project was Rs 16.92 lakh, for which he availed a loan of Rs 12.69 lakh, the records show.

On Lok Sabha website, Lumbaram’s profession is mentioned as “agriculturist”, “farmer” and “LIC agent”.

When Lumbaram applied for subsidy in 2021, he was not an MP. He was elected MP in 2024. The subsidy was approved in December 2024 and released in January 2025.

Before becoming MP, Lumbaram served as a member of Zila Parishad in Sirohi from September 2021 to 2024. Earlier, he served as BJP’s district president for Sirohi from February 2014 to March 2019. During 2005-10, he served as pradhan (head) of the Panchayat Samiti in Sirohi.

Thakur also informed the House that Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Bhagirath Choudhary, who availed a Rs 99-lakh subsidy for his cucumber farm from a scheme under his own ministry, has refunded it.

This comes exactly a month after The Indian Express published an investigation, detailing how Choudhary received the Rs 99-lakh subsidy through a horticulture scheme under his ministry.

The scheme to promote “commercial farming” — on a large scale for profit — of select vegetables and flowers comes under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). The MIDH was launched in 2014-15 and is administered by the National Horticulture Board, an autonomous organisation under the administrative control of Choudhary’s Ministry.

The initiative offers a maximum subsidy of 50 per cent, capped at Rs 1 crore per family, of the project cost for farming capsicum, cucumber and tomato, and eight varieties of flowers, including rose, anthurium and orchids. Choudhary’s project for cucumber cultivation, spread across 16,592 square metres, is one of the 467 approved by the NHB in 2025.

The Indian Express had also reported that three family members of Naresh Pal Gangwar, a senior IAS officer recently appointed Higher Education Secretary at the Centre, collectively claimed over Rs 1.16 crore in horticulture subsidies in five years.

Thakur’s written reply came in response to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee. Banerjee had asked: “Whether any serving Union Minister, Member of Parliament, or their immediate family members have received subsidy under schemes of the National Horticulture Board during the last five years and if so, the details thereof…”

He had also asked whether there is a conflict-of-interest or recusal policy for considering applications from public functionaries or their family members.

To this, Thakur replied, “The existing NHB Scheme Guidelines do not contain any specific provision regarding conflict of interest or recusal in respect of applications submitted by public functionaries or their family members.”