CHANDIGARH: Almost two years after IAS officer Ashok Khemka exposed the alleged seed scam in Haryana, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has vindicated his stand in its latest report tabled in the state assembly recently.

The CAG report has maintained that the state purchased around one lakh quintal wheat seed at higher rates in 2010 leading to extra expenditure of about Rs 3 crore.

When he was the managing director of Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) in 2013, Khemka had sent a report to the state government explaining how the seed was purchased at much higher rates. On the basis of his complaint, the CBI had also registered a preliminary enquiry into the matter.

According to the CAG report, HSDC in 2010 got permission of the agriculture department to arrange one lakh quintal of wheat seed from other state seeds corporations and government agencies to avoid any shortage of seed. The seeds were to be distributed among the farmers on subsidized rates.

The corporation placed orders to National Agriculture Co-Operative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) and National Co-Operative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF) for one lakh of certified wheat seeds at the rate of Rs 2,050 per quintal after finding their rates lowest.

The auditors observed that the NAFED supplied seeds to the HSDC by purchasing it from a Delhi based firm which further sourced it from four different private parties. “The company (HSDC) was aware that NAFED and NCCF would supply the seed after procuring it from the private parties and thus their rates would be higher because they would be inclusive of the margin of these agencies so the company (HSDC) should have either approached its co-producer (registered seed producer) or resorted to open tendering,” the CAG report said.

The auditors noticed that the market rate of wheat seed during 2010-11 was Rs 1,755 per quintal whereas wheat seed was purchased by the company at Rs 2,050 per quintal. On the other hand, Khemka had also estimated misappropriation of three to five crores by middlemen in the deal.

According to the report, a senior officer of the government told the auditors that the purchase of seed was made during 2010-2011 due to acute shortage of wheat seed because of withholding of seed stocks by private seed producers. “The reply was not acceptable as had the company (HSDC) arranged the seeds in time as per directions of state seed production committee such a situation would have not arisen,” concluded the CAG report.

