KASARAGOD: Kerala farmers are pushing back the state government's efforts to make agriculture power subsidy a troublesome procedure. In the East Eleri grama panchayat of Kasaragod, hundreds of farmers refused to play along with the government's new rules to form charitable societies to avail of agriculture power subsidy.
"Under the cover of direct benefit transfer, the government is trying to snatch away power subsidies by making the procedure complicated," said Chandran Nair, a farmer.
On Tuesday, Nair along with hundreds of farmers protested and walked out of a meeting called by the panchayat's agriculture officer S Uma to explain the new requirements to avail of the power subsidy.
"Instead of easing the lives of farmers, the government is dragging us into bureaucratic rigmarole," said Nair. As of now, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) gives the irrigation power bills of farmers to the respective Krishi Bhavan (Agriculture Office), which settles the bill.
"There is no involvement of farmers," said Mani Muthalamthode, a veteran farmer in Perumatty village, seven km from Palakkad's Chittur.
What is the new power subsidy scheme about?
According to the new set of rules, the farmers should form groups with at least seven members, and register them as charitable societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Once registered, each group should elect a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. Members should pay Rs 100 as an entry fee and pay Rs 10 every month as a membership fee. The group should meet every month. If a member fails to attend meetings for three months in a row or fails to pay the membership fee for three months in a row, they will lose the membership of the group, and thereby lose power subsidy.
The group's president, secretary and the agriculture officer concerned should form a joint bank account for the sole purpose of paying power bills to KSEB. The account should have an initial deposit, which can be used to settle power bills.
Once the group submits the expenditure certificate to the Krishi Bhavan, the power bill will be reimbursed as a 'direct benefit transfer', according to the government order dated September 22, 2021. The bank account will be subjected to auditing by the Department of Agriculture and also the government and the audit report should be discussed in the group.
"All these activities to pay a power bill. In a few months, half of the farmers will give up power subsidies instead of undergoing this monthly torture. And that's what the government wants," said Mani.
But that's not all, the groups will have to renew their memberships every year. If a group is not able to get seven farmers, it can join another group in the neighbouring panchayat. This new system was first tested in Pathanamthitta and then rolled out in the entire state. Agriculture officers said Pathanamthitta was selected because it has the lowest number of farmers availing of agriculture power subsidies.
'Rs 60 crore bill but released only Rs 36 lakh'
Around 2.37 lakh farmers avail of power subsidy in Kerala and their bill comes to around Rs 60 crore, said an additional director of the department. But this year, the department has sanctioned only Rs 36 lakh towards power subsidy, with the condition that the money should be released only to those farmers who form groups.
Shortage of funds
The government is facing a shortage of funds. Since 2017-2018, the Department of Agriculture has piled by Rs 88 crore as dues to KSEB, the government's power distribution company, said another top official of the department.
He said the direct transfer of electricity subsidy to farmers is one of the conditions set by the Union government to allow the state government to borrow more.
But farmers are not buying the argument. They said if direct benefit transfer was the only objective, the department could have made the procedure simple.
"A farmer has to go almost routinely to Akshaya centre, Village office, panchayat office, bank, Krishi Bhavan. Now, the government is expecting us to set up charitable groups and preside over them," said Mani. Government should calculate the number of days the farmers will have to waste to avail of the power subsidy," said Nair.
Officials said the department was facing stiff resistance from farmers in Thrissur, Palakkad, and Kozhikode districts. "We are considering giving a letter to the government listing out the difficulties in implementing the order," said the official.