Probe demanded into agriculture dept irregularities during Munde’s tenure

In August last year, senior IAS officer V Radha was abruptly removed from the agriculture department after she had differences with Munde

MUMBAI: More trouble appears to be in store for NCP minister Dhananjay Munde, as activist Anjali Damania and BJP MLA Suresh Dhas have alleged purchase irregularities in the agriculture department during Munde’s tenure as agriculture minister in the last government and demanded a probe. Damania has promised to reveal more details on Tuesday while Dhas told media persons on Monday that he had obtained certain details from the agriculture commissioner and would uncover them on Thursday.

Probe demanded into agriculture dept irregularities during Munde’s tenure

During the Shinde regime, the agriculture department was accused of financial irregularities in the procurement of nano urea, nano DAP, battery sprayers, metaldehyde pesticide and cotton bags. Munde’s office has refuted the allegations.

Damania alleged that while a 500-millilitre bottle of nano urea was available for ₹92 in the market, the agriculture department issued a tender to purchase 19,68,408 bottles for ₹220 per bottle. Nano DAP’s market price was ₹269 per bottle but it was purchased for ₹590. Similarly, battery sprayers, available for ₹2,496 per bottle, were purchased for ₹3,425.

The activist claimed that though the central government had issued a directive in 2016 to transfer money directly to farmers’ bank accounts under the Direct Benefit Transfer policy, the agriculture department purchased equipment and fertilizers for distribution to farmers at inflated rates.

Significantly, in August last year, senior IAS officer V Radha was abruptly removed from the agriculture department after she had differences with Munde. Radha and Munde had disagreements on several issues, including the purchase of spray pumps for cotton and soya, cotton storage bags and fertilisers nano urea and nano DAP.

On Monday, Damania alleged foul play, saying she had ordered bottles of nano urea from an online shop to show that it was still being sold at a much lower price, but the website did not deliver the order. Munde’s office, however, said that no website was allowed to sell nano urea online.

A statement from Munde’s office said that no e-commerce platform is authorised to sell IFFCO products. “Such transactions from the e-commerce platforms are done by consumers on their own risk. IFFCO has also advised the farmers to purchase the products from the authorised dealers appointed by them,” the statement said.

“Some of the e-commerce platforms sell a few bottles of sub-standard quality at much cheaper rates. The e-commerce platform referred to by Anjali Damania is one such unauthorised platform and could have suspended the selling to avoid any controversy. There is no question of the pressure on such platform from the government.”