Micro irrigation scheme in Jharkhand: FIR against service provider tasked to verify beneficiaries

The Jharkhand Police has registered an FIR against Nabcons – a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) – and five of its field monitors over alleged irregularities in implementation of Per Drop More Crop, a key scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojna, in Hazaribagh district. Police said the FIR was registered Tuesday based on a complaint by the district agriculture officer (DAO), Hazaribagh, who wrote that Nabcons did not discharge its duties properly.

The FIR comes days after an investigation by The Indian Express, wherein it tracked 94 farmers in three Hazaribagh blocks and found that for most, benefits of the scheme were only on paper. Among the findings of the investigation were misuse of Aadhaar cards to create beneficiaries, new equipment gathering dust, and some farmers not even aware that money had been collected by private companies in their name. Nabcons was supposed to verify whether the farmers had indeed received the equipment and that it was operational.

Simultaneously, citing The Indian Express report, Jharkhand’s Agriculture Department Tuesday wrote to the remaining 23 districts to conduct “random” verification of beneficiaries of the scheme and submit a report within a week. Earlier, the department had formed a four-member panel to look into irregularities.

Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police Manoj Ratan Chothe said: “It has been registered based on the complaint of the DAO under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 and 420 (cheating).”