Haryana panchayat fines four over crop scheme fraud

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HISAR: Settling a dispute over fake registration on the Meri Fasal Mera Byora (MFMB) portal, a panchayat imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 each on four persons who fraudulently registered land of some other farmers as their own to claim compensation for crop loss at Ratia town of Fatehabad district.

The panchayat has set up a 10-member committee to detect more such cases of fraud.

After a number of complaints regarding fake registrations came up, a panchayat of farmers, traders and representatives of the Munim Union was held at Kisan Rest House on Saturday. The panchayat summoned four persons who had registered other farmers’ land by showing themselves as the tillers. The accused tendered an apology to the affected farmers. Imposing a fine of Rs 20,000 each, the panchayat directed them to transfer the compensation for crop loss from their bank accounts to the original landowners.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta) head Nirbhay Singh said the affected farmers accepted the apology of the accused. He said in case the accused did not honour their commitment, a criminal case would be registered against them. He said there were about 100 such complaints where farmers had been cheated by unscrupulous elements in a similar way. “This seems to be an organised gang of online fraudsters who have been duping farmers across the state,” he said.

Arhtiya Association head Rakesh Kamboj said they would cooperate with farmers in case any such fraud was detected in future.