The Commissioner General (CG) of the Department of Agrarian Development A.H.M.L. Abeyrathna said that strict disciplinary action will be taken against certain officials who were involved in allegedly disrupting the programme launched by the Department to pay allowances at rates of Rs. 10,000 per hectare and Rs. 20,000 per two hectares to about 1.2 million farmers under the financial aid received from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
During a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera, Abeyrathna said that it is apparent that certain officers of the Department have deliberately disrupted the programme to provide farmers with the allowances at the said rates, for political interests. He said that 38% of the bank account details of farmers islandwide which have been received by the Department through regional officers, are faulty.
He said that 20 staff members had to be deployed to find the correct bank account details, and that 8% of the account details have not been able to be corrected yet. Abeyrathna further said that the relevant officers of certain Agrarian Service Centre areas are yet to send the bank account details to the Department. Claiming that it is apparent that such officers are deliberately doing so in order to disrupt the programme, he said that strict disciplinary actions would be taken against them in the future.
The Ministry of Agriculture stated on Tuesday (14) that it had received information that the arrangements to provide financial allowances to 1.2 million farmers under the financial aid of the ADB were being sabotaged by a group of officers of the relevant institutions, particularly the Department. It had been revealed that a group of agricultural research production assistants and technical officers were attempting to disrupt the distribution of allowances to farmers for their alleged political interests. Accordingly, Amaraweera had instructed Secretary to the Ministry Gunadasa Samarasinghe to appoint a team of officials to carry out an investigation into such officers.
The Ministry recently stated that out of the Rs. 8 billion which is to be given to farmers at the rates of Rs. 10,000 per hectare and Rs. 20,000 per two hectares for the 2022-2023 Maha cultivation season, about Rs. 1.3 billion has been returned to the Department due to farmers having provided faulty bank account numbers. Out of the said sum of Rs. 8 billion, Rs. 6.5 billion has already been deposited to farmers' bank accounts. The remaining Rs. 1.5 billion, including the returned Rs. 1.3 billion, will be deposited to the relevant beneficiaries' accounts in the coming days, stated the Ministry.