Guwahati, Mar 22 (IANS): The Assam Police's CID has busted a major fertiliser scam in Assam and arrested nine people, including owners of various retail and wholesale outlets and hoarders, officials said on Tuesday.
A police spokesman said that following the direction of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the CID had earlier registered a criminal case and conducted raids at various places in Morigaon, Kamrup, Darrang, Cachar, Goalpara, and Darrang districts recently.
Of the 9 accused have been arrested so far, eight are owners of various retail and wholesale outlets who were selling urea at a much higher price than the rate prescribed by the government. Some were found hoarding the stocks and diverting them to middlemen and traders.
The owner of a truck which was used to transfer the diverted urea has also been arrested.
All the nine accused are presently under CID custody for thorough interrogation.
The spokesman said that so far it was found that both the wholesalers and retailers were selling the urea at around Rs 350 to Rs 450 per bag against the government's prescribed rates of Rs 266 per bag.
These retailers are bound to sell the urea only to the farmers of their gram panchayat, but they have been selling to other people beyond their jurisdiction and also to those who are not farmers, and as a result, ineligible persons are buying the same for hoarding and diverting the stocks whereas the genuine farmers of that area are deprived.
The CID has formed several teams for conducting searches and verification of urea stocks at various locations in the state.
Violating norms, the wholesalers or retailers were also not updating data of fertiliser trade despite the presence of the Integrated Fertiliser Management System (IFMS) portal of the Union Ministry of Fertilisers and Chemicals for maintaining the database of procurement, distribution and sale of urea.
District Agriculture Officers are supposed to monitor the data entry and sample verification, but have failed in their duties leading to the scam taking place unhindered, the spokesman said, adding that the role of officials of the Agriculture Department is also under scrutiny.