Spurious cotton seeds menace continues to haunt Mancherial district

Mancherial: The menace of smuggling of banned spurious cotton seeds continues to haunt Mancherial district even as police and authorities of the agriculture department jointly try to clamp down it. It is leaving an adverse impact on farmers and soil. The operations of sowing cotton seeds would usually commence in June. Farmers buy the seeds […]

Mancherial: The menace of smuggling of banned spurious cotton seeds continues to haunt Mancherial district even as police and authorities of the agriculture department jointly try to clamp down it. It is leaving an adverse impact on farmers and soil.

The operations of sowing cotton seeds would usually commence in June. Farmers buy the seeds around the onset of the monsoon. But large quantities of spurious seeds have reportedly been smuggled by certain traders of the district from Andhra Pradesh. They were secretly stored in warehouses of the smugglers belonging to Bheemini, Kannepalli and Nennal mandals.

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“While police were busy in discharging duties at the venues of recently concluded Pranahita Puskharalu, a mass holy bathing festival of the river, the smugglers shipped the seeds by three vans to different parts of Bellampalli Assembly constituency,” a source said. The smugglers have already started selling substandard the seeds to gullible farmers through agents as indicated by recent consecutive instances of enforcement.

It is learnt that a notorious trader of Bheemini mandal centre is the kingpin of the racket. He was allegedly smuggling seeds for quite a long time considering the huge profits. He was stated to be bribing some authorities concerned to carry out the sale of spurious seeds. He is said to have recruited his agents in rural parts to sell the seeds in April and May to avoid detection.

In-charge Deputy Commissioner of Police Akhil Mahajan said that a special team was formed to curb the menace of the spurious seeds. He stated that a tab was kept on the suspicious traders of the district. He requested the farmers to share information of the traders with police. He cautioned that stern action would be initiated against the smugglers.
Area of cotton cultivation goes up

The area of cultivation of the cotton crop continues to go up in the district. The cash crop was grown in 1.90 lakh acres in the district in 2021. It is expected that the area of the cultivation of this commercial crop would increase in this year, following the ever increasing price of the cotton. The price touched Rs 10,000 per quintal, cheering the farmers.

However, cultivation of the cotton crop affects the soil according to environmentalists. The minerals of the soil are depleted due to the growing of the crop. Farmers would spray toxic weedicide glyphosate, which causes respiratory and skin diseases among the growers. They tend to sow the spurious seeds due to low costs involved in removing weed.

Recent instances
Borigam Buchaiah was arrested for allegedly storing the spurious seeds at his house in Jankapur village of Kannepalli mandal on April 21. 50 kilograms of the fake cotton seeds were recovered from him.

Thorram Shankar and Komuram Madhunaiah were taken into custody on the charges of possessing the seeds at Chinnagudipet village in Bheemini mandal on the same day

While 50 kilograms were seized from Shankar, Madhunaiah was found to have stored 11 kgs of the seeds during inspections by the police, following a tip.

Jadi Shankar, a private employee from Golet was held for supplying the seeds in Achulapur village in Thandur mandal on April 21

Year     Cases reported   No persons    Seeds recovered             Value

involved (In Kgs)               (in lakhs)

2019         24                        52                  4,928                             71.37
2020        30                       88                   53,958                         126.74
2021        65                       157                   5,082                           96.51
2022        5                         11                     1,193                            23.25

PD Acts were invoked against 18 habitual offenders in 2020 and 2021

Three persons held for smuggling spurious cotton seeds in Mancherial

Three persons were arrested on charges of smuggling spurious cotton seeds at Jankapur in Nennal mandal on Thursday. Twelve quintals of the seeds were recovered from them. The value of the seeds was assessed to be Rs 24 lakh.

Bellampalli Assistant Commissioner of Police Adla Mahesh said that the accused persons were Yashwanth Venkata Kumar, a native of Guntur but settled in Mancherial, his drivers Ajay and Subhash. While Ajay and Subhash were detained while trying to flee from the spot during a vehicle check at Jankapur, Venkata Kumar was held in Bellampalli.

On being interrogated, Venkata Kumar confessed to smuggling the spurious seeds from Karnataka to overcome losses registered in trading of gunny bags and to make a fast buck. He admitted that he learned about the seeds through Jagan of Andhra Pradesh. He revealed that he was about to sell the banned seeds to gullible farmers of rural parts by shipping the seeds to Kannepalli mandal by a jeep with the help of Ajay and Subhash.

Mahesh commended Thandur Inspector K Jagadish, Sub-Inspectors Suresh, Sammaiah, Kiran and Venkatesh and their team members for showing spontaneity in arresting the smuggler and his aides.

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