Agartala: A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has revealed serious lapses in the implementation of the PM-KISAN scheme in Tripura for the financial year 2022–23, highlighting that thousands of ineligible individuals received funds meant for poor and marginal farmers.
The audit identified 2,911 ineligible beneficiaries, with 2,763 of them receiving payments amounting to Rs 4.18 crore.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
These included individuals who were untraceable, lacked land ownership, were non-residents, or were serving/retired government employees, all disqualified under the scheme’s rules.
Shockingly, Rs 4.44 lakh was disbursed to 173 beneficiaries even after their ineligibility had been flagged.
A total of Rs 3.60 lakh was transferred to 151 individuals due to the failure to implement ‘Stop Payment’ instructions in time.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Further scrutiny revealed that 337 state government employees had availed benefits worth Rs 47.84 lakh. Most were registered using departmental logins, indicating a potential lapse in internal oversight.
The audit also found 848 deceased individuals receiving Rs 54.20 lakh after their death, with Rs 2.36 lakh paid even after field staff had raised ineligibility requests.
Income tax-paying farmers, another excluded category, were also found in the beneficiary list. Though the government claimed recovery efforts and verifications were underway, the CAG termed the response unsatisfactory.
The report concludes that weak monitoring and administrative negligence have led to significant misuse of public funds, calling for urgent reforms to ensure accountability and better enforcement of eligibility norms.