Hailakandi: Five agriculture officers suspended over Farmer Registry lag

Five Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) in Assam's Hailakandi district were suspended in a single day after a review found the district's progress on the Farmer Registry to be "severely negligible", India Today NE reported.

The Assam Agriculture Department issued the suspension orders on October 29, after a review meeting chaired by Agriculture Minister Pijush Hazarika and attended by the Director of Agriculture and district officials in Hailakandi.

What the review found

According to the notifications, very few Farmer IDs had been generated in the district. The officers had been made responsible for organising enrolment camps, mobilising farmers and supervising field staff in their areas, but were allegedly found to have been wilfully absent from the field in the days before the review, hurting the registration drive.

The suspended officers were in charge of the Lala (HQ), Lala Bazar, Boalipar, Hailakandi and Katlichara agriculture circles.

Hazarika's message to the department was that government officials cannot place themselves above the farmers they are meant to serve.

Terms of suspension

The orders were issued under Rule 6(1) of the Assam Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964, pending departmental proceedings. During suspension the officers will be attached to the office of the District Agriculture Officer, Hailakandi, and cannot leave headquarters without permission from the competent authority. They are also barred from private employment or business during this period.

Why the Farmer Registry matters

The Farmer Registry is a time-bound flagship programme of the Centre and the Assam government to build a database of farmers by issuing each a unique Farmer ID. The digital ID is meant to make it easier to deliver benefits and services, such as scheme payments, crop loans and insurance, directly to registered farmers.

The state government has been pushing to speed up enrolment and improve agricultural services at the grassroots level, and the Hailakandi action is a sign that district officials will be held accountable for slow progress.

Hailakandi, in the Barak Valley in southern Assam, is a largely agricultural district bordering Mizoram. The department has not said whether similar reviews are planned in other districts.