As more skeletons tumble out in the scam involving the cotton buyers and the personnel of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and Marketing Department, a fresh Vigilance probe into cotton purchases during 2014-2016 has revealed that most of the names of farmers listed in the purchases are bogus.
Minister for Agriculture Prathipati Pulla Rao has issued orders suspending 26 senior officers of the Marketing Department. A CBI probe has also been ordered into the allegations.
The scope of the probe included cotton procurement at the Agricultural Market Committees of Guntur, Chilakaluripet, and Sattenapalli.
Of the 300 samples of names of farmers, 222 have been found to be bogus as their identity could not be established.
The scam unfolded after the CCI directly took up purchases during 2014-2016 because of the sluggish price. The CCI had procured 93 lakh quintals of cotton paying farmers Rs.4,500 crore.
Greedy buyers, who smelt an opportunity, procured cotton from farmers paying far lesser than the minimum support price of Rs.4,050 per quintal and later sold the bales to ginning mills in Tamil Nadu.
There were allegations over irregularities in the payment of transport charges too.
The CCI pays Rs.200 per quintal as transport charges. But the buyers are accused of pocketing the transport charges.
It was alleged that bills were raised in bogus names and the percentage shared between CCI buyers and Marketing Department officers.
There were allegations that some buyers close to the Minister were also involved. Mr. Pulla Rao, however, denied the allegations.
In brazen violation of norms, most of the farmers have not been given acknowledgement of bills. In some cases, their passbooks have not been verified.
As most purchases take place outside the auction floors of the AMCs, innocent farmers are taken for a ride.
‘Signatures not taken’
The probe also revealed that signatures of farmers had not been obtained in the inward registers of the AMCs and Takpattis, and in some cases ginning mills leased by the CCI did not maintain records.
