VILLUPURAM: The district additional director of the agriculture department has announced that farmers can get fertilisers under subsidy only after producing their Aadhaar details from January onwards.
According to sources, the Centre and State together spend around `75,000 crore on subsidised fertiliser every year. It was found that some people who bought fertiliser under the subsidy were not farmers. The central government was seeking to cut out such middlemen who bought fertiliser under subsidy to sell it outside.
An order has been passed that from January 1, the subsidy will be given only to people carrying Aadhaar cards. Action was taken across TN and Puducherry to support this and point of sale machines were distributed at all offices. Once the Aadhaar details are entered, the farmers would begin getting the benefits directly. Around 952 fertiliser sellers in the district will get POS machines worth around `25,000. Training, for handling the POS machines and collecting required details, was currently underway.
A POS machine distribution function took place at the agriculture department head office on Tuesday. District additional director K Selvaraj distributed the machines to the fertiliser sellers.
The farmers seeking to buy subsidised fertiliser should register their Aadhaar number and thumb impression in the POS machine. As work should be streamlined this way since January 1, the fertiliser stock and sale details were collected through special camps in taluk level to facilitate preparation.