CURATED BY – YASHPAL SINGH JAT | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Anuppur, Agriculture Department officials in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh, which has the largest area of ​​organic farming in the country, have grown a crop of corruption. From the year 2018 to 2020, a scam of Rs 2 crore 29 lakhs has been done by tampering with the earthworms and other materials given to farmers for organic farming.

Complaint in Economic Offences Cell

Deepak Mishra, a resident of Shahdol, had complained to the Economic Offences Cell Rewa unit and demanded an investigation into the irregularities. After this, Collector Ashish Vashisht sent his team to investigate and the complaint of irregularities was found to be true. On this basis, the collector has sent information to the government and the Economic Offences Wing and demanded action against the responsible officers. Literature and training were to be given to 5 thousand farmers. Under the scheme, 5 thousand farmers from different villages of the district were to be given vermicomposting beds, organic manure, earthworms, nets, literature and training. For this, Rs 6 crore 93 lakh were allocated from the District Mineral Fund. In this, Rs 2 crore 90 lakh were given to the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) project of the Agriculture Department, Anuppur to buy materials, Rs 2.93 lakh for training and other works and Rs 1.08 crore to a private company for soil testing. Rs 9770 was allocated per farmer. Proposal sent for recovery and suspension of Rs 2 crore 29 lakh. During the investigation by the district administration, many farmers told that they did not get earthworms and other materials. Whatever they got was also of poor quality. Irregularities were also done in the name of soil testing. Farmers also told that they were not given any training. The collector has sent a proposal for departmental inquiry and suspension along with recovery of Rs 2 crore 29 lakh from Deputy Director of Agriculture ND Gupta. Additional Collector Aman Vaishnav said that a letter was received from the Economic Offences Wing on which an inquiry committee was formed at the district level, the investigation was done in which the truth was found. Corruption of two crore 29 lakh was found in the Agriculture Department between the years 2018 to 2020 from the DMF head. Its information has been sent to the Economic Offences Wing Rewa and the government level. The complaint was made in the Economic Offences Wing by Shahdol resident Deepak Mishra.