Spurious seed sales come down due to raids: Niranjan Reddy
Agriculture Minister appreciated Task Force officials for striving towards CM K Chandrashekhar Rao’s objective of making Telangana free from spurious seeds
Hyderabad: The sale of spurious seeds came down due to the joint raids carried out by the task force teams across the State, said Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy here on Saturday.
Expressing satisfaction over positive results achieved by the task force teams comprising officials from the police and agriculture departments, the Minister appreciated the officials for striving towards Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s objective of making Telangana free from spurious seeds.
“We have created such a situation among seed dealers that they are now scared of resorting to selling spurious seeds,” he said at a meeting conducted at the Ranga Reddy district Collectorate office here to review the measures taken to control the sale of spurious seeds.
Director-General of Police M Mahendar Reddy, Principal Secretary to Government, M Raghunandan Rao, IG North Zone Y Nagi Reddy and other officials also attended the meeting. The Minister said a few dealers were still selling substandard quality seeds at some places. The State government was also exploring making amendments to the existing laws meant for selling seeds and making Telangana free from spurious seeds, he said.
Following instructions from the State government that stern action should be taken against dealers selling substandard quality to farmers, the police department has launched a crackdown and registered 209 cases against 320 people so far, said Mahendar Reddy.
He said Preventive Detention (PD) Act was invoked against four people this time and similar action would be taken against the notorious persons who are illegally getting substandard quality seeds from other States and selling them in Telangana.
The menace of selling spurious seeds was reduced drastically because of the joint operation of the police and agriculture departments, Mahendar Reddy said, asking officials to prepare a report on problems faced during the raids along with suggestions to initiate more stringent steps to eradicate the menace.
Nagi Reddy said history-sheets would be opened against dealers, who are found to be repeatedly selling substandard quality seeds. The history sheets would be sent to the police station concerned for maintaining a constant vigil on errant dealers.
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