Nagpur: Sunil Kendrekar, a forthright IAS officer of 2002 batch, is in news once again. This time for his out-of-turn transfer from the post of state agriculture commissioner based in Pune to relatively less significant posting in sports and youth welfare ministry.

In a short tenure of three months, Kendrekar had taken so many proactive measures in farmers’ interest rattling the lobbies working for seed, fertilizer and farm-related businesses.

A couple of months ago, Kendrekar was instrumental in imposing ban on one prominent brand of Bt cotton seeds in the state leading to loss of around Rs 200 crore to that company.

Even before the start of the Kharif season, he had been cautioning the Union agriculture ministry and Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the Union ministry of science and technology on failure of Bt cotton seeds to fight bollworm infestation and seeking reconsideration of approval given to the genetically modified seeds.

Patented by multinational Monsanto, under its licence several Indian seed companies sell BGII cotton seeds that are no longer resistant to infestation of pink bollworm and other insects, the very reason for which over 90% of cotton growers adopted it and pay around Rs 800 a pack against the desi hybrid that sells for Rs 200.

In the latest letter on August 1, Kendrekar had sought stringent action against the misleading claims by St seed sellers and warned that this year the pink bollworm attack could be massive and majorly ruin cotton crop.

Of the three months he was in the post, one month was spent in training. But his concerted actions within two months had turned the heat on seed companies indulging in malpractices in drip irrigation and fertilizers.

He indicated that he will be more severe on seed companies if Bt cotton failed this time and would go to the extent of filing police cases for fraud against them. This could be the reason he was shunted out in a hurry, said farm activist and state farm distress task force chief Kishore Tiwari.

To make matters worse for Kendrekar, his senior and state agriculture secretary Vijay Kumar was hardly supportive of the noble cause of espousing farmers issues. He constantly engaged him in other trivial administrative issues. So much so that Kendrekar was forced to seek an exit from the post to escape from the situation.

Sources said that only the chief minister was totally supportive and had asked to be patient for six months. But interference from above increased so much that Kendrekar had no choice but to seek another assignment.

TOI has copies of letters he wrote to the Centre on the Bt issue. He had pointed out that cotton formed 35% of the state’s crop and had country’s largest area of over 40 lakh hectares under cotton. If the government clamped down on Bt seeds companies and forced them to slash prices to Rs 200 a pack, it would save farmers Rs 19,000 crore.

The government had passed a law in 2009 guaranteeing compensation to farmers if the Bt seeds failed. All this could come down heavily on the state in the coming days.

“Gullible farmers, especially cotton growers of Vidarbha, may not be aware of the good work he was doing in their interest. Now, credibility of the state and Union governments would come under a cloud if they fail at least to sort out the Bt cotton issues he had raised,” said Tiwari.



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