The seizure of a huge quantity of ‘spurious’ cotton seeds in Tekulapalli mandal by the police a few days ago has turned the spotlight on the suspected role of an organised spurious seed racket.
Acting on a tip off, a police team reportedly seized several dozens of packets of ‘spurious’ cotton seeds from a person at Sulanagar and launched a detailed investigation to trace the source and also probe the suspected nexus between the errant seed firms and greedy traders, sources said.
The Agriculture and Police departments have already constituted joint teams to check the sale of the unapproved herbicide tolerant variety cotton seed (BG-III) in tune with the government’s zero tolerance approach towards the spurious seeds.
Vigil has been mounted in the border mandals of the district keeping in view the long boundary it shares with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Several inter-State gangs fleeced gullible farmers by selling them spurious chilli seeds in the erstwhile undivided Khammam district in 2016.
The State government launched a major crack down on the spurious seed companies and the persons behind the racket following a widespread outcry from aggrieved farmers in the same year.
