Unveiling Agricultural Scams

In a scathing attack, former Haryana Chief Minister and opposition leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda accused the BJP-JJP government of functioning as protectors of scamsters. He highlighted fraudulent practices in schemes like Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) and crop insurance, exposing massive swindling at the expense of farmers. Hooda emphasised a recent case of a major scam involving FPOs, where hundreds of crores were syphoned off under the guise of benefiting farmers.

The creation of fake FPOs using the names of non-existent farmers resulted in a colossal loot, diverting funds meant for the upliftment of genuine agricultural practices directly into the pockets of swindlers. The former CM pointed out that earlier, rice procurement and market purchases, followed by crop insurance and compensation, witnessed widespread embezzlement. Now, another scam has come to light where fraudulent FPOs were established to embezzle funds intended for farmers' welfare.

Despite the enormity of the scam reaching the central government's attention, the BJP-JJP alliance failed to take any decisive action, even shielding wrongdoers by diverting the case to a CID investigation instead of a CBI inquiry.

Hooda underscored the gravity of the situation by revealing that around 3 lakh farmers across 7 districts of the state were left without crop insurance this year. The cluster-2 districts, including Ambala, Karnal, Sonipat, Hisar, Jind, Mahendragarh, and Gurugram, were denied the benefits of crop insurance, leaving farmers vulnerable to potential losses in crops like mustard, wheat, barley, and sunflower.

Highlighting the negligence towards genuine farmers, Hooda demanded a thorough investigation into the entire matter, urging the government to conduct a survey at the cluster-2 level, ensure prompt payment of all pending compensations, and rectify the discriminatory distribution of compensation among farmers. 

In conclusion, Hooda urged the government to undertake a comprehensive examination, making the needed corrections to benefit farmers rather than exposing them to financial vulnerabilities. The need for transparency, accountability, and immediate resolution of pending compensations to prevent further exploitation of farmers echoed in his call for a high-level inquiry into the entire affair.