LAHORE:Governor Punjab Muhammad Balighur Rehman on Friday set aside decision of the ombudsman Punjab regarding suspicious transactions by fertilizer dealers on DAP fertilizer under ‘Farmers Subsidy policy’ through Kissan Card of the Punjab government.
The agriculture department had appealed against the ombudsman verdict after the department was asked to release confiscated money of the fertilizer agency. The department had stopped security money of the fertilizer agency for suspicious transactions in DAP fertilizer to farmers through Kissan Card.
Deciding two separate representations of the agriculture department, governor Punjab observed that the entire issue of subsidy provided to the farmers on DAP fertilizer should be investigated by the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team to identify those responsible for poor planning and failure to prevent corruption during the implementation of the scheme.
The governor further stated that it is imperative that the matter be thrashed out and the responsibility be fixed regarding poor planning during execution of the scheme and inability to adopt preventive measures to curb corrupt practices especially keeping in view the magnitude of public exchequer involved.
He directed the provincial secretary agriculture department to initiate a summary for the chief minister Punjab for seeking approval to assign the CMIT for thorough investigation into the matter, especially the slackness committed by the agency viz a viz the responsibles, determination of genuine claims payable to the dealers, and recommendations for the administrative departments to avoid such instances in future.
The governor Punjab stressed effective steps to improve the subsidy schemes in future.