Pilibhit: Resentment is brewing among farmers in Pilibhit over arrears in payment for paddy crop worth Rs 71.38 crore, which accumulated due to the launch of a new central government system, of transferring payment for procured paddy to bank accounts of the respective farmers. With farmers going unpaid for over a month after the 72-hour deadline, the district vice-president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Manjit Singh, has sent a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding he expedite the payment so that farmers can invest in their next crop, which would be wheat, mustard or lentils.
He also warned that farmers would be compelled to agitate if their arrears were not cleared within a week.
Singh said of the eight agencies deployed by the government to purchase paddy in Pilibhit, barring the state food department, all seven were initially transferring payments via RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), but after a government order dated December 23, they began transferring to farmers’ bank accounts via the Union government’s public financial management system (PFMS), which had already been adopted by the food department.
“The new system is sluggish due to multiple complications related to verification of farmers’ particulars. As a result, the outcome is huge arrears in paddy payments, leaving farmers in a liquidity crisis ahead of the Rabi crop season,” Singh said.
District food and marketing officer, Avinash Jha, said, “PFMS is a Union government financial portal to which all bank accounts across the country have been fed. After procuring paddy from a farmer, the transaction is locked online by the procurement center in-charge with his digital signature. Thereafter, the district food and marketing officer and the regional accounts officer has to independently verify the particulars of each farmer filed with his bank account, including land ownership revenue documents and registration with government website for paddy sale. Only then are details uploaded by the regional accounts officer on the PFMS for payment.”
“Payment is transferred to farmers’ bank accounts only after all their details match with those fed to PFMS. There are a lot of teething issues such as mismatch of spellings of farmers’ names, his status as first holder of bank account or incongruity in land ownership documents, which is delaying payment,” Jha said.
The Union government’s objective behind introducing PFMS from this season was to wipe out manipulations in payment transfer process, which had frequently been reported during the previous years, he explained.
He added that till January 8, the district had procured 3.70 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, valued at Rs 680.13 crore, of which the backlog of payment is around Rs 71.38 crore.
Some affected farmers, including Lakhwinder Singh of village Naurangabad, Gurpinder Singh of village Khamaria Patti, Ramesh Singh of village Dudhia Khurd and Om Prakash of village Tanda Chhatrapati, all under Puranpur tehsil, told TOI that their payment was held up since last week of November.
He also warned that farmers would be compelled to agitate if their arrears were not cleared within a week.
Singh said of the eight agencies deployed by the government to purchase paddy in Pilibhit, barring the state food department, all seven were initially transferring payments via RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), but after a government order dated December 23, they began transferring to farmers’ bank accounts via the Union government’s public financial management system (PFMS), which had already been adopted by the food department.
“The new system is sluggish due to multiple complications related to verification of farmers’ particulars. As a result, the outcome is huge arrears in paddy payments, leaving farmers in a liquidity crisis ahead of the Rabi crop season,” Singh said.
District food and marketing officer, Avinash Jha, said, “PFMS is a Union government financial portal to which all bank accounts across the country have been fed. After procuring paddy from a farmer, the transaction is locked online by the procurement center in-charge with his digital signature. Thereafter, the district food and marketing officer and the regional accounts officer has to independently verify the particulars of each farmer filed with his bank account, including land ownership revenue documents and registration with government website for paddy sale. Only then are details uploaded by the regional accounts officer on the PFMS for payment.”
“Payment is transferred to farmers’ bank accounts only after all their details match with those fed to PFMS. There are a lot of teething issues such as mismatch of spellings of farmers’ names, his status as first holder of bank account or incongruity in land ownership documents, which is delaying payment,” Jha said.
The Union government’s objective behind introducing PFMS from this season was to wipe out manipulations in payment transfer process, which had frequently been reported during the previous years, he explained.
He added that till January 8, the district had procured 3.70 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, valued at Rs 680.13 crore, of which the backlog of payment is around Rs 71.38 crore.
Some affected farmers, including Lakhwinder Singh of village Naurangabad, Gurpinder Singh of village Khamaria Patti, Ramesh Singh of village Dudhia Khurd and Om Prakash of village Tanda Chhatrapati, all under Puranpur tehsil, told TOI that their payment was held up since last week of November.
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