BHOPAL : The decision of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan to remove Principal Secretary, Revenue, Arun Tiwari for delay in distribution of relief to farmers has not gone down well with the bureaucracy. The order for increasing the relief amount for damage to orange trees and Isabgol crop could not be issued as the related file was stuck with Finance Department.
The Revenue Department had sent the file to Finance before sending it to the cabinet. The file could not get through Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Ajay Nath and Secretary, Finance, Aniruddh Mukherjee and the order could not be issued.
After Chauhan’s announcement regarding increase in relief amount, the Cabinet was to decide the matter and that also led to delay. Although Rewa Collector Rahul Jain is also said to be responsible for the delay in relief distribution but no action was taken against him. Panna Collector had taken over recently and relief was being distributed there.
The work of distribution of relief in Mandla, Gwalior, Sheopur and Satna was also languishing but no action was taken against Collectors.
There are other officers too who, along with Tiwari, are responsible for delay in relief distribution. A senior officer maintains that Tiwari could have taken approval from Departmental Minister in anticipation of cabinet clearance and increased the relief amount. He did not do it and this proved costly to him.
Meanwhile Tiwari said such things take place in government and he does not consider anyone responsible for this. So far, Rs 318 crore has been distributed as relief, which is 83 per cent of total allotted relief of Rs 384 crore.
Pending orders now issued
A day after the removal of PS, Revenue Arun Tiwari, all the pending orders vis-à-vis compensation to farmers were issued by the government. The compensation for Orange, Pomegranate and other fruit-bearing trees was raised from Rs 400 to Rs 500 per tree while for in case of lemon, Papaya, Banana and grape crops, it was upped from Rs 7,500 per hectare to Rs 10,500 per hectare.
