Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Apr 20: Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, Subodh Yadav, expressed his unhappiness over the apathy of the officials towards the implementation of the ambitious ‘Suvarna Bhoomi’ scheme of the government. He felt that but for the disinterestedness shown by the officials, poor people would have been benefited from this scheme.

He was addressing those present after reviewing the performance under the scheme, after presiding over the District Implementation and Monitoring Committee meeting of Suvarna Bhoomi Scheme at the court hall of his office on Tuesday April 19.

Noting that April 25 is the last date for filing of applications under the scheme, he asked small and marginal farmers in the district to send their applications after collecting the same from taluk or gram panchayats. The applications have to be handed over to the Farmers Contact Centres. He asked for a meeting of the tahsildars and subdivisional officers within two days to spread information about the scheme among the farmers. He noted that the officials, who have not held a single meeting for the programme’s implementation, have tried to wash their hands off just by sending the information brochures to gram panchayats.

Asking officials for the speedy disposal of applications, he instructed them to decide the beneficiaries by draw of lots, if more than required applications with matching eligibility criteria are received. He asked the agricultural department officials to complete the process by May 9 by becoming more proactive and understanding the seriousness of the issue. The fact that a number of nodal officers appointed for the implementation of the scheme and the tahsildars remained absent, also angered him.

Zilla panchayat chief executive officer, P Shivashankar, chief planning officer, T K Takat Rao, and joint director in the department of agriculture, Padmaiah Naik, were present.