SAD seeks inquiry into 'seed scam'

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal Tuesday said his party will submit memoranda to deputy commissioners across the state on May 28 to demand an inquiry into the alleged seed scam. Badal claimed that "spurious" varieties of paddy seed were sold to farmers at three times the cost of genuine seeds.

In a statement here, the SAD chief said senior party leaders including Members of Parliament, ex MPs, legislators, constituency representatives and district presidents would submit the memorandums to deputy commissioners. It was shocking that after the state agriculture department got an FIR registered in Ludhiana on May 11 following complaints by farmers that they were being supplied with "spurious" seeds, some Congress leaders now swung into action to provide a "political cover to the scamsters", he alleged.

"No action has been taken in the matter," Badal claimed, adding the police had not conducted any seizures on godowns as well as the unit based at Gurdaspur which supplied "spurious" paddy seeds. The government is ready to let lakhs of farmers suffer only because the owner of the unit is a close associate of a cabinet minister, he alleged.

"We will not allow this to happen and will force the government to punish all those who are pushing the hard-working farmers to the jaws of suicide," he alleged. The opposition party on May 23 had claimed that a close associate of a cabinet minister was allegedly involved in supplying "spurious" paddy seeds which were not approved for sale by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).

A raid was conducted at a seed selling store in Ludhiana and more than 750 quintals of seed packaged as PR-129 and 100 quintals of seed packaged as PR-128 were seized, the party had claimed. But it had also said that no action had been taken against the supplier.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)