Assam CID has busted a major fertilizer scam

CID Assam has busted a major fertilizer scam.

The police said that following the direction of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the CID had earlier registered a criminal case and conducted raids at various places in Morigaon, Kamrup, Darrang, Cachar, Goalpara and Darrang districts recently.

Of the nine accused have been arrested so far, eight are owners of various retail and wholesale outlets who were selling the Urea at a much higher price than the rate prescribed by the Government.

Some hoarders were found hoarding the stocks and diverting them to middlemen and traders.

Owner of a truck which was used to transfer the diverted Urea has also been arrested.

All the nine accused are presently under CID custody for thorough interrogation.

The police said so far it was revealed that both the wholesalers and retailers were selling the Urea at around Rs 350 to Rs 450 per bag against the government’s prescribed rates of Rs 266 per bag.

These retailers are bound to sell the urea only to the farmers of their gram panchayat, but they have been selling to other people beyond their jurisdiction and also to those who are not farmers, as a result ineligible persons are buying the same for hoarding and diverting the stocks whereas the genuine farmers of that area are deprived.

The CID has formed several teams for conducting searches and verification of Assam’s Urea stocks at various locations in the state.

Violating the norms, the wholesalers or the retailers are also not updating the data of trading of fertilizer despite there is an Integrated Fertilizer Management System (IFMS) portal which has been designed by the Union Ministry of Fertilizer and Chemical for maintaining the database of procurement, distribution and sale of Urea.

The District Agriculture Officers are supposed to monitor the data entry and sample verification, but they have failed in their duties leading to the scam taking place unhindered.