CHANDIGARH: The Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board (HSAMB) has suspended four secretaries of market committees and got as many cases registered against 18 companies, including a government agency, for alleged manipulations in the procurement of mustard.
Those suspended on Thursday evening were Narender Yadav of Ateli market committee, Ashok Yadav of Narnaul market committee, Nakul Devi of Mahendergarh market committee and Aditya Yadav of Kanina market committee.
Besides, local units of HAFED and 17 other companies involved or associated in the procurement of mustard have been booked for cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy registered at police stations or respective areas.
The irregularities came to the fore during a surprise visit by HSAMB chief administrator J Ganeshan on Thursday. Besides carrying out physical verification of records related to procurement, the officer and his team inspected certain other documents related to registration of farmers on the portal wherein procurement data was manipulated.
The development hints at a major procurement scam which could run into crores of rupees. Sources said the agencies allegedly connived with officials to procure mustard brought from neighboring Rajasthan under the garb of registration on ‘Meri Fasal Mera Byora’ portal.
The agencies as well as officials had also made an attempt to manipulate the records by altering the entries in the record books by overwriting or by covering original entries with white fluids, the sources claimed.
J Ganeshan has also taken the records into possession.
A major place for procurement of mustard, Mahendergarh district has the maximum number of oil mills.
