KRISHNAGIRI: Days after the scam in the implementation of PM-KISAN scheme was exposed, the Krishnagiri district officials on Sunday weeded out around 2,300 ineligible beneficiary accounts and recovered Rs 90 lakh.
Collector V Jaya Chandra Bhanu Reddy told TNIE that Rs 90 lakh was recovered from the farmers who are ineligible beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN scheme in the district. He claimed that around Rs 2.7 crore has been swindled.
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“It is suspected that around 6,000 ineligible beneficiaries have registered under the scheme. The officials who are investigating into the matter recovered Rs 90 lakh from several ineligible farmers in the district and the remaining amount will be recovered soon,” the Collector said.
Sources in the agriculture department alleged that a total of 7,792 farmers were identified as ineligible beneficiaries in Krishnagiri district. Of them, 5, 976 belonged to the district and the remaining were from other districts, including Villupuram, Thiruvallur and Cuddalore.
They added that 300 ineligible beneficiaries living in Karnataka, who had lands registered in Krishnagiri district, also applied for the benefit with forged documents and stated that Rs 90 lakh was recovered from around 2,300 farmers. They said that the CB- CID police is probing into the scam in ten more districts across the State.