The adulterated paddy bags recently unearthed in the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation godown here originated from Ramanathapuram district, Collector L. Subramanian said on Friday.
Responding to an issue raised by Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam functionary Devarajan at the monthly farmers’ grievance meeting here, Mr. Subramanian said stringent action had been initiated against officials in this regard. He had recommended to the State government to follow the Madurai model of monitoring the functioning of Direct Procurement Centres involving a team of farmers to avoid such irregularities.
The officials seized 875 bags of adulterated paddy in the godown, 668 bags loaded in a truck parked in the godown and 400 bags loaded in a lorry parked in a brick kiln. Two procurement officers were suspended and arrested. Two quality control officers of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) were placed under suspension. The brick kiln owner was arrested, he noted. “I had involved a senior vigilance officer and the TNCSC General Manager during the inspection,” he said.
Mr. Devarajan also raised the issue of allowing farmers to do away with wild boars that were damaging crops in farms near reserve forests. “We are not killing the animals in the forests, but only those in the Public Works Department tanks and in the farms,” he said.
However, Forest Range Officer V. Raveendran said killing of wild boars that were covered under Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act was prohibited. The animals were coming out of the forests in search of food and water, he added.
When a farmer, M. Seetharaman of Vadipatti, complained that the forest officials were neither taking steps to chase away the animals or coming to the rescue of the farmers when alerted, the Collector asked the officials to take efforts to chase away the animals. He asked them to speedily process the applications seeking compensation for the loss of crops destroyed by wild animals.
District Revenue Officer K. Velusamy, Joint Director of Agriculture A.J.A. Jeyasingh Gnanadurai, TNCSC Senior Regional Manager S. Ayyappan, Joint Registrar of Cooperatives Venkatesan were also present.