Some unscrupulous officials had deliberately given wrong farmer account numbers to the Department of Agrarian Development to sabotage the program launched to credit money to farmers’ accounts given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide relief to farmers to cultivate paddy during the 2022 / 2023 Maha season, according to a spokesman for the department.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has instructed officials of the department to launch an investigation to identify the officials who conspired to impede the program by giving fake farmer account numbers. Eleven Agricultural Research and Production Assistant Officers and technical Officers will be interrogated, Minister Amaraweera told a group of representatives of several farmers’ organisations recently.
According to the Department of Agrarian Development, Rs.1,300 million credited to farmers’ accounts had been returned due to the wrong farmer account numbers.
The Department of Agrarian Development took steps to distribute Rs. 8 billion to 1.2 million farmer families by way of a non-reimbursable Rs.10,000 for one hectare and Rs.20,000 for two hectares during the Maha season.
Of the Rs. 8 billion provided by the ADB to bring relief to the farmers in Sri Lanka, Rs. 6.5 billion has already been credited to the farmers’ accounts. It was also revealed that certain officials had avoided giving account numbers of farmers in some Agrarian Service Centre areas.