Tuver scam at Keshod APMC gets murkier

By Nischal Sanghavi

NAFED verifies grading report, collect video footage of stock taken and being sealed; of the seven accused in the scam, grader has been sacked, while the centre in-charge and godown manager have been suspended

The way in which it was meticulously executed, the

‘tuver’ scam at Keshod Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) promises to become one of the biggest agricultural scams of recent times and it seems what has come out is just the tip of the iceberg. As per Jahangir Baloch, mamlatdar, Nagrik Purvatha Nigam (Civil Supplies Corporation), looking to the seriousness of the entire episode, the managing director of Gujarat Civil Supplies Corporation Manish Bhardwaj rushed to Keshod and is himself handling the entire investigation.

Bhardwaj said, “An FIR has already been filed with Keshod police. The probe has found seven people involved in the scam. These include three traders, two labour contractor/supervisor, one grader and one centre in-charge. The grader has already been sacked. The centre in-charge who was on government payroll has been suspended. A godown manager has also been suspended. The NAFED team has arrived and they are checking the grading report and have taken the video footage while stock was taken and sealed.”

Giving details from Keshod, Bhardwaj informed that there were 1,425 farmers registered with Keshod APMC, of which 1,135 farmers had submitted a total of 1,900 tons of stock, between March 15 and April 14. The total value of the stock is Rs 10.72 crore. A payment of approximately Rs 5 crore has already been made to 105 farmers. “From the entire stock, we suspect 3,241 bags worth Rs 29 lakh to be adulterated. We will check the entire stock and take action against the guilty. However, farmers who have submitted clean stock will not suffer any loss of payment. The Rs 29 lakh to be paid to farmers would be recovered from the labour contractor and grading agency.”

Congress leader Palbhai Ambalia who is also president of Gujarat Pradesh Kishan Sangh was present during the entire investigation. Ambalia is furious and believes the entire scam has been executed right under the nose of corrupt government authorities. “Without involvement of Class 1 and 2 officers, such a smart scam could not have been executed,” he said. Palbhai has a reason to believe. According to him, “A vigilance committee of 10 people including Collector, DDO, EDO and other officers is supposed to visit the APMC regularly without notice and check whatever is happening there. However, the committee has never cared to visit the market in regular course.”

The stock taken from farmers has to be submitted on the same day to the government godowns, but in this case the stock was accumulated for 20 days and sent to the government godowns. “The market rate of ‘tuver’ is Rs 900-1,000/kg. However, the government is buying it at support price of Rs 1,130/kg. By the time the scam was uncovered, 19 truckloads of stock had already been sold to the government,” Palbhai said.

Palbhai thanked Bharat Ladani and Dhirubhai of Khedut Putra Hit Rakshak Samiti for being vigilant enough to uncover the scam. Ladani said, “The scam involved breaking the seal and mixing of ‘tuver’ with inferior content, resealing the bags and again breaking the seal to improve the quality when the bags were rejected by the government officer at the godown. It was while the seal was broken for the second time that we stayed awake for the entire night and uncovered the scam.”