Kerala farmers livid over state authorities’s new energy subsidy proposal 

Express News Service

KASARAGOD: Kerala farmers are pushing again the state authorities’s efforts to make agriculture energy subsidy a hard process. In the East Eleri grama panchayat of Kasaragod, a whole bunch of farmers refused to play together with the federal government’s new guidelines to kind charitable societies to avail of agriculture energy subsidy.

“Under the cover of direct benefit transfer, the government is trying to snatch away power subsidies by making the procedure complicated,” stated Chandran Nair, a farmer.

On Tuesday, Nair together with a whole bunch of farmers protested and walked out of a gathering known as by the panchayat’s agriculture officer S Uma to clarify the brand new necessities to avail of the ability subsidy. 

“Instead of easing the lives of farmers, the government is dragging us into bureaucratic rigmarole,” stated Nair. As of now, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) provides the irrigation energy payments of farmers to the respective Krishi Bhavan (Agriculture Office), which settles the invoice.

“There is no involvement of farmers,” stated Mani Muthalamthode, a veteran farmer in Perumatty village, seven km from Palakkad’s Chittur.

What is the brand new energy subsidy scheme about? 

According to the brand new algorithm, the farmers ought to kind teams with at the least seven members, and register them as charitable societies below the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

Once registered, every group ought to elect a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. Members ought to pay Rs 100 as an entry price and pay Rs 10 each month as a membership price. The group ought to meet each month. If a member fails to attend conferences for 3 months in a row or fails to pay the membership price for 3 months in a row, they are going to lose the membership of the group, and thereby lose energy subsidy.

The group’s president, secretary and the agriculture officer involved ought to kind a joint checking account for the only function of paying energy payments to KSEB. The account ought to have an preliminary deposit, which can be utilized to settle energy payments.

Once the group submits the expenditure certificates to the Krishi Bhavan, the ability invoice shall be reimbursed as a ‘direct profit switch’, in line with the federal government order dated September 22, 2021. The checking account shall be subjected to auditing by the Department of Agriculture and in addition the federal government and the audit report must be mentioned within the group.

“All these activities to pay a power bill. In a few months, half of the farmers will give up power subsidies instead of undergoing this monthly torture. And that’s what the government wants,” stated Mani.

But that is not all, the teams must renew their memberships yearly. If a bunch is just not capable of get seven farmers, it could possibly be a part of one other group within the neighbouring panchayat. This new system was first examined in Pathanamthitta after which rolled out in the whole state. Agriculture officers stated Pathanamthitta was chosen as a result of it has the bottom variety of farmers availing of agriculture energy subsidies.

‘Rs 60 crore invoice however launched solely Rs 36 lakh’

Around 2.37 lakh farmers avail of energy subsidy in Kerala and their invoice involves round Rs 60 crore, stated an extra director of the division. But this 12 months, the division has sanctioned solely Rs 36 lakh in direction of energy subsidy, with the situation that the cash must be launched solely to these farmers who kind teams.

Shortage of funds

The authorities is dealing with a scarcity of funds. Since 2017-2018, the Department of Agriculture has piled by Rs 88 crore as dues to KSEB, the federal government’s energy distribution firm, stated one other high official of the division.

He stated the direct switch of electrical energy subsidy to farmers is without doubt one of the circumstances set by the Union authorities to permit the state authorities to borrow extra.

But farmers should not shopping for the argument. They stated if direct profit switch was the one goal, the division may have made the process easy.

“A farmer has to go almost routinely to Akshaya centre, Village office, panchayat office, bank, Krishi Bhavan. Now, the government is expecting us to set up charitable groups and preside over them,” stated Mani. Government ought to calculate the variety of days the farmers must waste to avail of the ability subsidy,” stated Nair.

Officials stated the division was dealing with stiff resistance from farmers in Thrissur, Palakkad, and Kozhikode districts. “We are considering giving a letter to the government listing out the difficulties in implementing the order,” stated the official.

KASARAGOD: Kerala farmers are pushing again the state authorities’s efforts to make agriculture energy subsidy a hard process. In the East Eleri grama panchayat of Kasaragod, a whole bunch of farmers refused to play together with the federal government’s new guidelines to kind charitable societies to avail of agriculture energy subsidy.

“Under the cover of direct benefit transfer, the government is trying to snatch away power subsidies by making the procedure complicated,” stated Chandran Nair, a farmer.

On Tuesday, Nair together with a whole bunch of farmers protested and walked out of a gathering known as by the panchayat’s agriculture officer S Uma to clarify the brand new necessities to avail of the ability subsidy. 

“Instead of easing the lives of farmers, the government is dragging us into bureaucratic rigmarole,” stated Nair. As of now, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) provides the irrigation energy payments of farmers to the respective Krishi Bhavan (Agriculture Office), which settles the invoice.

“There is no involvement of farmers,” stated Mani Muthalamthode, a veteran farmer in Perumatty village, seven km from Palakkad’s Chittur.

What is the brand new energy subsidy scheme about? 

According to the brand new algorithm, the farmers ought to kind teams with at the least seven members, and register them as charitable societies below the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

Once registered, every group ought to elect a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. Members ought to pay Rs 100 as an entry price and pay Rs 10 each month as a membership price. The group ought to meet each month. If a member fails to attend conferences for 3 months in a row or fails to pay the membership price for 3 months in a row, they are going to lose the membership of the group, and thereby lose energy subsidy.

The group’s president, secretary and the agriculture officer involved ought to kind a joint checking account for the only function of paying energy payments to KSEB. The account ought to have an preliminary deposit, which can be utilized to settle energy payments.

Once the group submits the expenditure certificates to the Krishi Bhavan, the ability invoice shall be reimbursed as a ‘direct profit switch’, in line with the federal government order dated September 22, 2021. The checking account shall be subjected to auditing by the Department of Agriculture and in addition the federal government and the audit report must be mentioned within the group.

“All these activities to pay a power bill. In a few months, half of the farmers will give up power subsidies instead of undergoing this monthly torture. And that’s what the government wants,” stated Mani.

But that is not all, the teams must renew their memberships yearly. If a bunch is just not capable of get seven farmers, it could possibly be a part of one other group within the neighbouring panchayat. This new system was first examined in Pathanamthitta after which rolled out in the whole state. Agriculture officers stated Pathanamthitta was chosen as a result of it has the bottom variety of farmers availing of agriculture energy subsidies.

‘Rs 60 crore invoice however launched solely Rs 36 lakh’

Around 2.37 lakh farmers avail of energy subsidy in Kerala and their invoice involves round Rs 60 crore, stated an extra director of the division. But this 12 months, the division has sanctioned solely Rs 36 lakh in direction of energy subsidy, with the situation that the cash must be launched solely to these farmers who kind teams.

Shortage of funds

The authorities is dealing with a scarcity of funds. Since 2017-2018, the Department of Agriculture has piled by Rs 88 crore as dues to KSEB, the federal government’s energy distribution firm, stated one other high official of the division.

He stated the direct switch of electrical energy subsidy to farmers is without doubt one of the circumstances set by the Union authorities to permit the state authorities to borrow extra.

But farmers should not shopping for the argument. They stated if direct profit switch was the one goal, the division may have made the process easy.

“A farmer has to go almost routinely to Akshaya centre, Village office, panchayat office, bank, Krishi Bhavan. Now, the government is expecting us to set up charitable groups and preside over them,” stated Mani. Government ought to calculate the variety of days the farmers must waste to avail of the ability subsidy,” stated Nair.

Officials stated the division was dealing with stiff resistance from farmers in Thrissur, Palakkad, and Kozhikode districts. “We are considering giving a letter to the government listing out the difficulties in implementing the order,” stated the official.