Guntur: Officials told to act tough on sale of fake seeds

Guntur: Union minister Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar conducted a review meeting with the district collector S Nagalakshmi, joint collector G Rajakumari, agriculture department officials in the backdrop of the beginning of kharif season at the Collectorate here on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, he directed the officials to take stern action against the traders who sell spurious fertilisers, fake seeds and cheating the farmers. He instructed the officials to conduct vigilance inquiry on the sale of spurious fertilisers and seeds and stressed on the need to set up a toll-free number to receive complaints.

Farmers who used fake seeds and spurious fertilisers are in loss and they were caught in the debt trap.

Stock display boards were not set up at the fertilisers’ shops. He questioned how many shops the officials so far inspected which were not set up stock boards. Traders who committed mistakes should be punished. He gave 40 days time to change the system if not he will take action against the officials.

He expressed serious concern for not distributing identity cards to the tenant farmers. He inquired about the irrigation water supply to the lands through Nagarjunasagar, Guntur channel and directed the district collector S Nagalakshmi to take up repairs to the channels to reach water to the tail-end lands.

He said some of the employees working in the agriculture department joined services with bogus certificates and added that the TDP government removed them from the service. He directed the officials to submit details of such employees.

MLAs Tenali Sravan Kumar, B Ramanjaneyulu and Md Naseer Ahmed were present in the meeting.