Thiruvananthapuram: Agricultural officers in the State are having a hard time after they were asked to enter pending bills in the recently launched Saankhya software which is an accrual-based double entry accounting software. Officers claim that the software does not approve an entire file, which might be having 1000 plus beneficiaries, when even a minor error crops up causing hardship to them and farmers.
Bills pertaining to all the Government departments were supposed to be submitted before the treasury by March 30. In the case of the agriculture department, despite the officers submitting the bills on time, treasury officials informed that they would be sanctioning the dues on a queue basis. But even after two and a half months, the officers are in the dark on the pending bills.
An agriculture officer working in Thiruvananthapuram district told DC that both the agriculture department and treasury department officials had assured them not to worry. But the other day all krishi bhavan officials were advised to re-do the pending bills in the Saankhya software.
“Earlier, we had to complete only the minimal details before the treasury. But now we have to complete the beneficiary name, bank branch name, IFSC code, mobile number and also the aadhar number. Till now there was no need to collect the aadhar number, but now an official has to collect aadhar details of more than 1000 beneficiaries which is going to be time consuming”, said an agriculture officer.
The farmers are already peeved with various krishi bhavans for not meeting their demands. So the new obstacle in the form of Saankya software is going to further antagonize several lakh beneficiaries and the agriculture officers feel that the existing goodwill with farmers would be lost after the inordinate delay in meeting their dues. Another agriculture department official told DC that the usual review meeting that took place once a month had not been held which was causing further delay in sanctioning projects.
“The Government is yet to appoint the agriculture department director after the war of words between Biju Prabhakar who went on leave and his superior officer, Raju Narayana Swamy, former principal secretary of agriculture. It is the agriculture officers who are in the field who face the wrath of the farmers”, said a department official.
