Five agriculture development officers suspended in Assam's Hailakandi in a single day

In a stern message to the Agriculture Department, Assam Minister Pijush Hazarika has underlined that government officials cannot be placed above the farmers they are meant to serve, as five Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) in Hailakandi district were suspended in a single day over poor progress in the Farmer Registry programme.

The suspension orders were issued by the Assam Agriculture Department on October 29, following an official review meeting chaired by the Agriculture Minister and attended by the Director of Agriculture and other district officials in Hailakandi.

According to the notifications, the review found that the progress of the Farmer Registry in the district was “severely negligible”, with very few Farmer IDs generated.

The department stated that the concerned officers had been assigned the responsibility of organising enrolment camps, mobilising farmers and supervising field-level functionaries within their respective jurisdictions. However, they were allegedly found wilfully absent from the field for the preceding few days, affecting the registration drive.

The five suspended officers are Rajibul Hoque Mullah, ADO, Lala (HQ) Circle; Priyanku Mazumder, ADO, Lala Bazar Circle; Madhurjya Hazarika, ADO, Boalipar Circle; Akashdeep Karigapsa, ADO, Hailakandi Circle; and Aditya Bezbaruah, ADO, Katlichara Circle.

The suspension orders were issued under Rule 6(1) of the Assam Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1964, pending departmental proceedings.

During the suspension period, the officers will remain attached to the office of the District Agriculture Officer, Hailakandi, and will not be allowed to leave headquarters without prior permission from the competent authority. They have also been barred from taking up private employment or engaging in business during the period.

The Farmer Registry is a time-bound flagship programme of the governments of India and Assam, aimed at creating a database of farmers through the generation of unique Farmer IDs.

The action comes amid the state government's emphasis on accelerating farmer enrolment and strengthening the delivery of agricultural services at the grassroots level.