BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Monday assured seed growing farmers to pay their production incentives within two days.Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Sahoo made this assurance to a delegation of farmers who met him at Lok Seva Bhawan to apprise their concern after officials concerned informed them that direct payment to the beneficiaries through Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is not possible after closure of the financial year.
Director, Agriculture and Food Production, M Muthukumar told the farmers that they need not be worried as the directorate has decided to transfer the incentives to the farmers accounts through RTGS payment system.The real time gross settlement (RTGS) is a way of fund transfer that allows the money sent by the government to immediately reach the beneficiary on a real-time basis.
The 25-member delegation from across the State was led by Ashok Baral, farmers’ director in the Board of Directors of Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC). After the delegation met the Minister, he directed Muthukumar to make necessary arrangements for direct transfer of the benefit to the beneficiaries account. He further directed to fix accountability on the scheme officers who are responsible for the delay in disbursement.
The Agriculture Director told the delegation that the Central incentive of Rs 9 crore is still with the State government. Disbursement could not be possible due to technical problems which have been solved. The payment will be made within a couple of days.However, a scheme officer told this paper that the disbursement is not possible without the sanction of the department Secretary. “As the payment was not made before March 31, 2022, the end of the financial year, PFMS did not respond to our request,” the officer said.
Bargarh farmer Gokula Pradhan who was part of the delegation said the timely TNIE report was the saving grace. This prompted the administration to act swiftly.Prior to the meeting with the Minister, Baral brought the farmers plight to the notice of Chief Secretary Suresh Mahapatra by sending him the news report captioned “State surrenders Rs 9 crore farm incentive to Centre” published in TNIE on Monday seeking his intervention for settlement of farmers dues.
The Chief Secretary immediately took up the issue with Additional Chief Secretary cum Agriculture Production Commissioner Sanjeev Chopra to ensure that the payment to the farmers is immediately settled.