PM Kisan Package: Farmers face difficulties, allege corruption

Associations say govt departments demanding kickback, officials deny claims

LAHORE: Rice and cotton growers in Punjab are encountering major obstacles in applying for the Rs5,000-per-acre cash support, extended under the Prime Minister’s Kisan Relief Package, as they are being forced to pay kickbacks and get their CNICs verified with NADRA in a lengthy process, farmer lobbies have complained.

“The land department officials are demanding kickbacks and biometric verification from farmers, while the ones supporting Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) are getting cash-support effortlessly,” they said.

“Moreover, many fake applicants are also being enlisted by land department officials to please the ruling party supporters,” they added.

“The land department is under political influence and the ruling party leaders are handling the cash distribution affairs,” said Ari-forum Pakistan Chairman Ibrahim Mughal, while talking to The Express Tribune.

“From each village, the ruling party leader picks three to four of his blue-eyed farmers, providing them with a task to enlist those farmers for cash-support who in-return are willing to support them during the by-polls and next general elections,” he noted.

“This is not the end; farmers then have to pass-through the typical ‘patwar culture process’ where they get humiliated by land department officials. These farmers give bribes to get a small sum.”

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in September last year, announced the Rs341 billion Kissan Relief Package to support the rural economy; especially those rice and cotton growers who faced losses in agriculture produces due to high input costs.

The provision of subsidies on agriculture inputs like urea, cut in import duty on modern agriculture machinery, sales tax reduction and amputation of turnover tax on rice is also part of the package.

The most important part of the package, however, was to give Rs5,000 cash grant to farmers with 12.5 acre or less holding, though no mechanism was devised by planners to ensure transparent transfer of funds.

“We have witnessed many bribe cases and put them under concern authorities notice but no action has been taken yet,” said Khalid Khokhar, Pakistan Kisan Ittehad president. “To get a small amount of money, farmers have to wait in long queues for many days.”

Government’s version

Officials, however, maintained that the situation was “not that bad”.

“The task of cash distribution is not as easy as it seems due to the system’s incompetency,” said Farmers’ Association Pak­istan Director Hamid Malhi.

“The government is vigilant but the system is geared to perform in a certain way. One cannot say that such complaints are false but the extent of it is not that bad,” he said, adding that victims must be people who enlisted themselves illegally and are now demanding their share in return.

“Yes, the government gains some political mileage when they announce such packages; however, there is no political mileage at large. We heard a few complaints but they were tackled immediately,” said Punjab Agriculture Minister Dr Farrukh Javed.

Concerning verifications, he said, “We have to take NADRA’s help to match bio-metrics of farmers who have NICs made before 2005.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2016.

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