Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has directed the officials to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the distribution of goats, sheep and fish during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti government.
The Chief Minister wanted the probe to cover all aspects including the selection of beneficiaries, the purchase of goats/sheep and the modalities adopted for the distribution among the beneficiaries. Steps should be taken to hand over the inquiry to the Anti-Corruption Bureau if the vigilance reports point to lapses in the implementation of the schemes.
He gave the instructions during a review meeting with senior officials on the functioning of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries department on Tuesday.
The meeting assumes significance in light of the irregularities flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its report tabled in the Assembly recently. Referring to the observations made in the CAG report, Mr. Revanth Reddy recalled that an inquiry by the ACB too revealed that some employees diverted the funds meant for the distribution of sheep to their accounts and asked why further information was not collected by the department.
He wondered why the National Cooperative Development Corporation which sanctioned ₹3,955 crore loan for the first phase of the scheme launched in 2017 stopped release of loans for the subsequent phases.
Officials explained to the Chief Minister that NCDC had stopped loans to the scheme following the objections raised by the CAG citing the irregularities in the scheme. Mr. Revanth Reddy enquired as to why the beneficiaries who paid 25% amount as their share were not given sheep. The officials informed that ₹430 crore paid by 85,488 beneficiaries was with the district Collectors while another 2.2 lakh beneficiaries did not pay their share of the money.
The Chief Minister said there were several doubts relating to the implementation of the fish cultivation scheme and directed the officials concerned to conduct a thorough probe into the issue. Officials brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that ₹4 per litre of milk incentive to dairy farmers was not paid for the last three years resulting in pending dues of ₹203 crore. The Chief Minister stressed the need to release the incentive to dairy farmers and directed the officials to make payments through green channel every month.
Emphasising the need for setting up a veterinary hospital in every mandal, he wanted the officials to take steps to ensure that veterinary hospitals were constructed in 91 newly formed mandals too. Mobile veterinary services should be continued and steps should be taken to call for tenders in this regard.
