Khammam: Special Task Force teams to check menace of spurious seeds

To prevent sale and transportation of fake seeds, extensive checks would be carried out at special check posts set up on the district borders

Khammam: Special Task Force teams have been set up in Khammam to tackle the menace of spurious seeds, Commissioner of Police Vishnu S Warrier said.

To prevent sale and transportation of fake seeds, extensive checks would be carried out at special check posts set up on the district borders. Task Force teams would constantly be in the field at mandal and division levels to monitor the situation, he said.

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The Commissioner held a coordination meeting with police and agriculture officials here on Saturday in the wake of guidelines issued by the State government to clamp down on fake seeds sellers. Persons with past criminal record with regard to the sale of spurious seeds were being monitored; they were being bound over and if required PD Act would be invoked against them, he noted.

Warrier said some greedy brokers sell fake seeds to cash in the innocence of farmers, who get cheated after buying seeds at cheaper price. Often farmers fail to recover the investment they made as they could not get expected crop yield with fake seeds and would fall into debts.

As the State government takes serious measures to curb such brokers, police and agriculture departments should be prepared to conduct extensive inspections in the district in coordination at mandal, division and district level, he suggested.

As fake seeds could be transported at the mandal headquarters as well in rural areas, special surveillance was needed at such places. Attention should be paid to expired seeds, those selling without license and those who have a license in one area and sell elsewhere. Officials have to be alert in the cases related to inaccuracies in the maintenance of stock registers and bill books.

Similarly, surveillance was increased on the district borders to control liquor smuggling. Police were cracking down on illegal trafficking using technology. By identifying the areas and routes of smuggling across the State, CC cameras were installed, mobile check posts set up and the informer system strengthened to prevent liquor smuggling, Warrier informed.

Additional DCP (Law & Order) Subhash Chandra Bose, excise superintendent Nagi Reddy, ACPs PV Ganesh, Baswa Reddy, Rahman, Ramanujam, Prasanna Kumar, Venkataswamy, Venkateswara Rao and agriculture official Kishore Babu were present.