Categorically rejecting as “baseless and unfounded” the allegations of mismanagement in the purchase of machinery for in-situ management of crop residue, Punjab Government on Sunday said that the whole process is being carried under the supervision of Central Government’s task force, headed by Centre’s Agriculture secretary.
“The quality standards and prices of agro-machines for managing paddy straw in the state of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, have been fixed by a task force at Government of India level,” said the Agriculture Department’s spokesperson.
Spokesperson added that the top functionaries of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and NITI Aayog, besides representatives of all four states, are the members of committee constituted to formulate and monitor the roll out of scheme for paddy residue management and its time-bound implementation.
The specification and pricing of machines have been fixed by technical teams consisting of representatives of Agricultural Universities of Punjab, Haryana, ICAR, Central Government Machine Testing Centers, and technical members from the States.
The process to empanel manufacturers has been conducted directly by the Union Ministry of Agriculture after checking all test reports and other documents. Quality audits have also been conducted at the premises of manufacturers by Special Teams of the Central Government to check technical capability and manufacturing capacity of manufacturers.
Spokesperson said that the prices of equipment are, by and large, at par with the prices prevalent in last year, except for some increase that has occurred due to increased steel prices and mainly due to imposition of GST ranging from 12 to 28 percent on agriculture machinery by the Centre, whereas there was almost no such tax on agri-machines in previous years.
The State Government has sent requests to the Centre to bring all agricultural equipment or equipment exclusively for paddy straw management under 0 percent GST slab or the minimum slab of five percent.
There is bound to be difference in prices of the equipment meeting the quality standards fixed by the National Agro-Machinery Test Centres and approved by the Centre and the machines having no standards and no registration.
Spokesperson said that the farmers of Punjab have shown keen interest in purchase of equipment either individually or through groups. The State Agriculture Department had fixed a target to supply about 9,000 machines to individual farmers at 50 percent subsidy, whereas the Department received 16,000 applications.
Similarly, the State had decided to give such machines on 80 percent subsidy to 500 groups and agriculture cooperative societies against which state received 1,684 applications from Farmers Groups and 3,547 from Agriculture Co-op Societies.
The farmers can purchase machines from the empanelled manufacturers of Punjab or from outside the state. Already as against 24000 machines targeted to be supplied to farmers and farmer groups, about 19000 machines have been delivered and rest are being supplied.
