Prayagraj: Cyber fraudsters embezzled Rs 60 crore of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana funds after hacking the login ID and password of Kunda tehsil computers. The matter came to light after funds were found transferred to individuals including minors hailing from outside the state.
Deputy director (Agriculture-Pratapgarh) has lodged an FIR at Cyber Crime police station under relevant sections of BNS and section 66 C and 66 D of IT Act against unknown persons for misuse of Kunda Tehsil ID/login and embezzlement in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
Under this arrangement, once the beneficiary’s details were entered at the tehsil level, the registration was directly forwarded to the govt level without any testing or verification facility. This meant there was no verification or investigation process available at the Tehsil or district level for details entered via ‘Direct Entry’. ” Misusing this system, a case of large-scale suspicious and fake registrations through the ID of tehsil Kunda has emerged. After the issue came to the notice of the district level, Govt of India removed the ‘Direct Entry’ option from the portal with immediate effect. With irregular registrations—including those of ineligible individuals, minor children, and people from outside the district and state—the govt portal was misused, resulting in improper payments of govt funds.
The complainant claimed, “Earlier, to facilitate the registration of farmers, the govt provided a ‘Direct Entry’ option at the Tehsil level login.