Field visits in the Parappa block panchayat made as part of an inquiry by senior agriculture officials have found that 90 per cent of the pepper vines that were given away by the Krishi Bhavan as part of a subsidy scheme were withered.
The accusation was that the farmers were provided with low-quality, rootless pepper vines. Based on a complaint regarding this filed by M. Ranjith Nambiar, a farmer from Kottodi in Kallar village, the Principal Agriculture Officer (PAO) and the Deputy Director of Agriculture decided to undertake field visits to individual households.
The PAO and Deputy Director of Agriculture reached the Krishi Bhavan at Kallar and directed verification of the 6,000 pepper vines supplied to 78 farmers in the panchayat limits. It was after this that 90 per cent of the vines were found to be destroyed.
The vines given away to farmers in as many as nine grama panchayats falling under the block panchayats were procured from an approved local nursery based at the hilly hamlet of Bheemanadi.
Meanwhile, the Vigilance officials with whom a complaint was lodged had forwarded the complaint regarding this to the office of the State Vigilance office, Mr. Nambiar, said.
