Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Bhagirath Choudhary has returned a Rs 99-lakh subsidy he received for his cucumber farm under a ministry scheme, the Centre informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The action follows an investigation published a month earlier that detailed how Choudhary obtained the subsidy through a horticulture program run by his own ministry. In a written response to a query from Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, Minister of State Ramnath Thakur stated that Choudhary had refunded the amount to the concerned bank. The bank was instructed to return the funds to the National Horticulture Board.
