Over 81,000 farmers deemed ineligible for PM-Kisan scheme in Bihar
Patna (PTI): Over 81,000 farmers have been deemed ineligible for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme in Bihar, and the government has asked state-owned banks to expedite the process of collecting refunds from them, a senior official said.
These farmers were found disentitled for the central government programme on account of paying income tax and other reasons, he said.
"After proper scrutiny, a total 81,595 farmers (45,879 income tax payees since 2020 and 35,716 for other reasons) have been identified as ineligible beneficiaries in Bihar. The state's agriculture department has asked all the banks concerned to expedite the process of collecting the refund amount worth around Rs 81.6 crore from the farmers," Alok Ranjan Ghosh, Director (Agriculture), told PTI.
At a recent meeting of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC), senior officials were asked to accord top priority to initiating the process of the collection, he said.
The lenders have also been asked to issue fresh reminders, if required, to the ineligible farmers, as well as freeze such accounts.
Nearly Rs 10.3 crore refund money has so far been collected from these farmers by certain banks, Ghosh said.
The PM-Kisan scheme became operational from December 1, 2018. Under the programme, an income support of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal installments is provided to all land-holding farmer families.
The state governments identify the farmer families, which are eligible for support as per the scheme guidelines, and the funds are directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
