India RegionFarming and Agriculture

Farmers being cheated on the name of government schemes

28 December 2021, New Delhi: These days a new tactics is being adopted by online fraudsters. Cheating is done especially in the name of government schemes. One such case has come to the fore of an attempt to cheat a farmer of Neemuch district in the name of setting up a solar power plant through the Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana of the Central Government, but due to the awareness of the farmer, this attempt of the fraudster failed.

Radheshyam Patidar, a farmer of village Barkheda Kamlia tehsil, Jawad district, Neemuch, told Krishak Jagat that when he opened a link talking about Kusum Yojana in a WhatsApp group, He was asked to fill information of Aadhar card and bank pass book. On December 17, the approval letter was sent on WhatsApp with the signature of the said Managing Director, in which it was told that your file is registered in Kusum Yojana. Further, he was asked to send Rs 5,600 for legal charges. In this letter, the account number and IFSC code were also given in the name of PM Kusum Yojana. It was written in this letter that for installing solar power equipment, the farmer will have to deposit only 10% of the amount. The government will give 90% of the amount as subsidy in the farmer’s account.

At the same time, he was told on call that after depositing Rs 5,600, the company people will meet you in a day or two to know the location of installation and other details. After depositing 10% amount of 5 lakh 50 thousand, the complete work will be done in 4-5 days. Seeing such promptness, he doubted and contacted Krishak Jagat and narrated the whole story. Krishak Jagat immediately spoke to the alleged Managing Director on mobile (8274921464). When asked for the land line number with full details of this scheme, the phone was disconnected.

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In this regard, District Officer of MP Urja Vikas Nigam Indore, Mr. Ashok Gupta told Krishak Jagat that at present the departmental portal is closed. Many old cases are still pending. The new policy of the government in this regard will come after March 31. For old registered farmers, there was a provision of grant of Rs. 72 thousand for 5HP solar pump and Rs. 36 thousand for 3HP pump. The new rates will come after the revised policy. The file will be opened only after the OTP is received on the mobile number of the registered farmers on MP Online portal and the further process will continue. At the same time, another departmental officer said that farmers contact us after being a victim of fraud, while they should come first and get real information, so that fraud can be avoided.

It is noteworthy that Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana is an ambitious scheme of the Central Government, under which government assistance is provided to farmers for installing solar pumps. Under this, a provision has been made to install solar pumps and other grid-connected solar power plants to the farmers. By taking advantage of Kusum Yojana, farmers can increase their income by installing solar power equipment and selling surplus electricity after irrigating the fields. Subsidy is given by the state’s nodal agency MP Urja Vikas Nigam by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.