LAYYAH, Aug 5: Delays in a subsidy scheme under the Drought Effected Rehabilitation Assistance (DERA) programme is going to financially overburden farmers who are already facing huge fiscal crunch owing to skyrocketing inflation in prices of farm inputs.

First the general elections compelled the district administration to halt the pipelined subsidy scheme and now, according to sources, alleged political interference is hitting the farmers hard.

They will have to pay now almost 100 per cent more than the prices of peter engines they were to pay in August or September last year when the scheme was originally meant to be executed.

The government had included Layyah district in its DERA programme in 2005.

In 2007, the district development committee (DDC) approved two schemes with the funds available under the programme, one for water resources development and the other for construction of veterinary dispensaries and Rs10 million and Rs3 million were allocated for these schemes, respectively.

The district coordination officer (DCO) informed the DERA assistant chief about the approval of these schemes by the DDC through letter No DCO/3320 (P&D) Ly dated Feb 10, 2007.

The veterinary dispensaries were constructed allegedly on the basis of political expediencies and three PML-Q candidates managed to get one dispensary each built in their provincial constituencies i.e. in Basti Shadu Khan of PP-263, Fatehpur of PP-262 and Chak 153-TDA of PP-266.

Under the second scheme, Rs20,000 subsidy was to be given to around 500 farmers selected through a lucky draw to purchase diesel peter engines.

Under the scheme, 490 high-speed diesel engines were to be distributed, nine each in 44 union councils of the district among the owners of minimum three acres of irrigated, salaba and barani land up to maximum seven, 10 and 12 acres in each category, respectively.

The DDC approved subsidy criteria, rules and regulations and registration of farmers for the lucky draws in its meeting held on February 24, 2007.

Later, the DCO granted administrative approval of the scheme on March 14, 2007.

After the approval of the subsidy package by the DDC for the purchase of peter engines, design of application forms, pre-qualification of firms and dealers of peter engines was approved in a meeting on March 27, 2007.

The agriculture EDO wrote to the DGPR for the publication of advertisements for subsidy scheme in two Urdu dailies through letter No EDO/agri/1903/DEV.

The advertisements inviting applications for subsidy to farmers appeared in Multan editions of Nawa-i-Waqt and Jang newspapers on July 11 and July 12, 2007.

The last date of submission of forms was also enhanced from July 3, 2007 to July 15, 2007 to facilitate more and more farmers.

The agriculture department issued 5,000 application forms and 1,201 applications were received by the deadline.

The successful farmers had to pay their share of Rs5,000, 8,000, 9,500, 10,500 and Rs11,500 on the purchase of 16, 18, 20, 23 and 25 horse power peter engines, respectively.

The lucky draws were scheduled to be held from Nov 24 to Nov 27 in three tehsils of this district. However, on Nov 7, 2007, the district administration halted further processing on the scheme owing to coming general elections in the start of 2008.

After the general elections, the DDC in its meeting held on April 11, 2008, discussed the modalities of resuming the scheme and ordered its immediate execution.

The new schedule of draws at union council level for the three tehsils was announced. The first draw for Layyah tehsil was held on June 4, 2008, at Zila Council Hall in Layyah and the other at union councils Kot Sultan and Chowk Azam on June 5.

Similarly, draw was held at the office of agriculture deputy district officer (extension) for Choubara tehsil on the same date.

List of lucky winners was displayed after each draw at these places and the selected farmers were directed to get their allotment letters with in seven days of the draw after paying their share of the amount.

The draw for Karor tehsil was to be held at Fateh Pur on June 7, 2008, but it never took place as it was cancelled allegedly following verbal directives issued by the Finance and Planning (F&P) EDO at the behest of Punjab agriculture minister.

On the condition of anonymity, an official of the agriculture department told Dawn that the agriculture minister, who belonged to Karor tehsil, had certain reservations about the scheme so the draw was cancelled and the scheme was rolled back indeed on his instructions.

However, had the scheme not been rolled back on that point of time, farmers would have paid Rs14,000, 17,000, 18,500, 20,000 and Rs21,000 on account of their share to purchase 16, 18, 20, 23 and 25 horse power engines, respectively, which amount was more than double the money they had to pay in 2007 when the scheme was initially being executed.

After the scheme was taken back to square one, fresh advertisements appeared in Multan editions of Nawa-i-Waqt and Jang on June 17 and June 18, 2008, inviting applications from farmers by July 8, 2008 deadline.

Around 1,200 farmers had already applied for the scheme in 2007 and as many as 2,200 have applied for the scheme this time. The lucky draws will be held from August 10 to August 12 in three tehsils of this district.

After the 2008-09 budget, the prices of locally manufactured high-speed diesel engines have further gone up by Rs1,500 to 3,000 per piece subject to specifications and by Rs5,000 per piece imported from Karachi or Lahore and the resumption of the scheme afresh is going to make farmers pay this much amount over and above they were to pay in June this year had the scheme not been rolled back.

Talking to Dawn, former district nazim Shahabuddin Khan alleged that after lucky draws in Layyah and Choubara tehsils, Punjab Agriculture Minister Ahmed Ali Aulakh and MPA Qaisar Khan Magsi pressed the DCO to cancel the lucky draws held previously and accommodate voters and supporters of the PML-N.

Shahab also demanded that extra money to be paid by the farmers should be deducted from the salaries of agriculture department officials and from the MPA and the minister’s perks.

When contacted, Aulakh denied the charges and maintained that he had not interfered in the scheme.

When contacted, Agriculture EDO Abdul Majeed said the number of applications received in various union councils was very low and the number of applications from two union councils was even less than the available number of peter engines to be distributed according to prescribed schedule.

So, to maintain transparency, he said, the previous draws were cancelled and fresh applications were invited to facilitate more and more number of farmers to benefit from this scheme.

DCO Javed Iqbal and F&P EDO Abdul Rehman Khagga endorsed the agriculture EDO’s version in somewhat corroborative views and denied the allegations of political interference.

They also maintained that the whole process was rolled back for the sake of transparency.