Stepping up raids on unauthorised fertilizer outlets, sleuths of the Vigilance and Enforcement department along with police and agriculture department staff, seized 8.10 metric tonnes of spurious muriate of potash (MOP) concealed at two places at Yerragondapalem in Prakasam district on Tuesday.
On a tip-off that coloured salts were being sold as fertilizers to gullible farmers, the combined team of staff led by vigilance circle inspector B.T.Naik raided a rice mill and a trading firm at Yerragondapalem and seized 162 bags of spurious stocks, Regional Vigilance Enforcement Officer and Additional Superintendent of Police N.Rajini said while coordinating the simultaneous raids in different parts of western Prakasam.
She said 128.35 tonnes of spurious fertilizers worth over ₹22.82 lakh had been seized in and around Yerragondapalem, Tripurantakam and Dornala so far this month and cases registered against eight persons. Six of them were arrested, she added.
Modus operandi
Explaining the modus operandi of the offenders, she said, sourcing spurious fertilizers from neighbouring Karnataka, they targeted farmers who faced cash crunch and sold the spurious ones – a mixture of red oxide, salt and fine sand – on credit and with an assurance to take payment after harvest from the buyers.
“They offer hefty discounts but do not furnish any bills for the transactions on the pretext that they belonged to previous year’s stocks,” she added.
With a view to avoiding detection by the authorities, they stored spurious stocks mostly in abandoned godowns and houses and dumped them in nearby Gundalakammavagu and the Nagarjunasagar canal when they sensed impending raids.
Simple test
In order to know whether the fertilizer is genuine, she said, farmers should dip a teaspoonful of it in water and test it. “The spurious one will dissolve in water immediately turning the solution red in view of the presence of red oxide in it while the original one will emerge as lumps when put in water and will take a longer time to dissolve,” she explained.
Farmers should take note that if spurious fertilizers were used in farms then they would be rendered unfit for cultivation in the next year in view of high salinity, she cautioned.
