BADIN, April 23: Small farmers see foul play in a draw for subsidised tractors held recently at the Chief Minister’s House because majority of beneficiaries are either big landlords or people with political connections.The farmers were required to submit an application with a bank draft of Rs25,000 to be able to participate in the draw, which was meant to benefit small landholders.

The office of the director general of Agriculture Engineering and Water Management in Hyderabad received as many as 46,000 applications for 4,000 tractors from across the province, including 3,268 from Badin.

This correspondent obtained a list of successful applicants from Badin, which has serial number, ballot number and name of successful candidates with father’s name but no NIC number and residential address.

The list has a total of 307 lucky farmers, including 61 women farmers, who were picked from 3,268 applicants from the entire district. About 215 names on the list are farmers with more than 25 acres, including 43 women farmers and only 92 are small farmers, including 18 women, who haveless than or up to 25 acres.

Ali Ahmed Jokhio, a landowner, said that the scheme for subsidised tractors had benefited only the rich, PPP activists and an MPA and completely ignored the poor farmers.

Media officer of the director general of agriculture, Maqbool Hussain Memon, said that Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah had carried out the draw at the CM House on April 16. The complete list of lucky farmers with NICs would be provided to EDO(agriculture) Badin soon, he said.

He said that no demand draft of any farmer had been deposited in bank and the money was lying in the office of director general. All demand draftswould be sent back to the applicants whose names did not come up in the draw within 15 days, he said.

He admitted that an MPA or other influential land owner had the right to avail the government scheme.