Police on the lookout for owner of the house running unit

The menace of spurious seeds and pesticides returned to haunt farmers in various parts of the district nearly three years after it wrecked havoc by fake chilli seeds in several mandals of the former composite Khammam district.

The seizure of a huge quantity of spurious chilli seeds and chemical laced ‘bio-products’ during a raid by Task Force police on the house of a seed agent at Gopalapuram in Tirumalayapalem mandal on Saturday turned the spotlight on the looming menace.

The raid also brought to the fore attempts by some unscrupulous elements to illegally stock and sell spurious agricultural inputs to farmers in a clandestine manner in the current rabi season in Tirumalayapalem mandal and elsewhere in Khammam division.

The Task Force personnel confiscated some containers and equipment used for packaging the spurious seed and also stickers of a seed company during the raid on the ‘illegal packaging unit’ at Gopalapuram.

The raid was conducted by the Task Force team under the supervision of ACP G. Venkat Rao based on specific inputs about the clandestine operation of the seed packaging unit, sources said.

The kingpin of the racket is suspected to have sold the spurious seed packets to several unsuspecting farmers through an outlet in Khammam ever since rabi sowing operations began last month, sources added.

Now, police are on the lookout for the owner of the house where the illegal packaging unit is located. Agriculture department officials collected the samples of the seized material from the unit for analysis, sources added.

Some gangs are on the prowl to sell spurious agricultural inputs to gullible farmers in Konijerla and various other mandals in the district to make a quick buck, said Banoth Veerabhadram, District Secretary, Telangana Girijana Sangham.

Some alert villagers foiled a bid by unscrupulous persons to sell spurious bio-fertilizers at Tummalapalli village in Konijerla mandal two days ago, he said, urging the district administration to constitute joint teams of Agriculture and other allied government departments to prevent sale of spurious agricultural inputs in the district.

The issue will be highlighted during the dharna called by the Telangana Rythu Sangham on various issues confronted by farmers in Khammam on December 10, he added.