The Telangana government has decided to move the Centre on the practical problems experienced in preventing diversion of fertilizers, which is the main objective of the direct benefit transfer scheme introduced from January 1.
The Agriculture Department, which is implementing the scheme in the State, is apparently clueless about tackling the possible diversion of fertilizers by the retail dealers who can enter any valid Aadhaar card number or enrolment number for sale of fertilizer through the point of sale devices.
When contacted, official sources admitted that the matter could not be ruled out since there were no specific guidelines in place about linking Aadhaar numbers for sale of the soil fertility supplements. The system as it is allows the dealers to sell fertilizer upon entering any valid Aadhaar number and they could divert the supplies and sell them to the farmers for a premium during the peak demand periods.
Connectivity also remains a problem in rural areas where the data communication facilities are not up to required standards. “We plan to take up the matter with Delhi, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, which is implementing DBT, in a day or two,” a senior official in the Agriculture Department stated.
For the record, Telangana stands second in the country in the matter of activating PoS devices with the retail dealers of fertilizers at 6,641. Of them, 6,377 have been re-initialised, made ready for transaction (sale) of fertilizers by entering the stock details. “Tamil Nadu is placed first in the country in activating PoS devices at fertilizer dealers with 96.65%, while Telangana stands second with 96.06%,” the officials said.
As per data available with the Ministry of Fertilizers and Chemicals, the total retail points in Telangana are 9,862. The officials attributed the delay on part of the PoS device suppliers for the non-possession of the devices by the remaining retailers.
