The Center informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that Bhagirath Choudhary, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, has reimbursed the Rs 99-lakh subsidy that he received for his cucumber farm through a program run by his own ministry. This occurs precisely one month after an investigation by The Indian Express revealed how Choudhary obtained the Rs 99 lakh subsidy via a horticulture program run by his ministry.
Ramnath Thakur, Choudhary's colleague and Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, responded in writing to a query from Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, saying, "Shri Bhagirath Choudhary has communicated that he has refunded the subsidy to the bank concerned under the scheme." The National Horticulture Board (NHB) has been instructed to receive the subsidy sum back from the bank in question.
In addition to Bhagirath Choudhary, Thakur told the House that during the past five years, Lumbaram Choudhary, a BJP MP from Jalore, Rajasthan, had benefited financially from National Horticulture Board programs.
The National Horticulture Board, an independent organization under Choudhary's Ministry's administrative control, is in charge of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, which was established in 2014–15 and aims to encourage "commercial farming" of specific vegetables and flowers on a large scale for profit.
The program provides a maximum subsidy of 50% of the project cost, up to Rs 1 crore per household, for growing tomatoes, capsicum, and cucumbers as well as eight other types of flowers, including as orchids, rose, and anthurium.
A total of 16,592 square meters make up Choudhary's cucumber farming enterprise. Under the program "Development of Commercial Horticulture through Production and Post-Harvest Management of Horticulture Crops," the NHB approved 467 projects in 2025.
The Indian Express also revealed that over the course of five years, three family members of Naresh Pal Gangwar, a senior IAS officer and the Center's Animal Husbandry Secretary, collected more than Rs 1.16 crore in horticultural subsidies.
Banerjee, a member of the Trinamool Congress, had previously questioned the ministry about "whether any serving Union Minister, Member of Parliament, or their immediate family members have received subsidy under schemes of the National Horticulture Board during the last five years and if so, the details thereof." Additionally, he had inquired about the existence of any recusal or conflict-of-interest policies for applications from public employees or their relatives. "The current NHB Scheme guidelines do not contain any specific provision regarding conflict of interest or recusal in respect of applications submitted by public functionaries or their family members," Thakur said.
