Lens on MP pulse procurement scam, cooperative officials among 10 booked

BHOPAL: An FIR has been filed against 10 people in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur for allegedly causing a Rs 1.86 crore loss to the exchequer by making bogus entries of moong and urad in the e-procurement portal.

Police have booked cooperative officials, computer operators, bank staff, surveyors, and a warehouse manager for inflating entries to siphon off funds. However, past records of procurement scams suggest the rot may run much deeper.

A closer scrutiny of the data reveals that in at least nine districts, procurement figures exceeded actual production reported in 2022-23. In Chhindwara, 7,628 tonnes of pulses were procured this year against a production of 3,074 tonnes in 2022-23. If accurate, this would mean the district's pulse production more than doubled in just a year.

In Khargone, procurement reached 10,712 tonnes compared with 8,120 tonnes of output in 2022-23. Even in smaller districts like Umaria, Betul, Mandla, Dhar, and Satna, procurement exceeded last year's production - in some cases more than two-fold.

Some districts that reported zero production in 2022-23 also showed procurement this year.

In 2017, TOI reported how more pulses were procured than produced in Narsinghpur's Tendukheda block. At least 300 "farmers" who sold pulses worth Rs 7 crore could not be verified, leading to probe committees and demands for a CBI inquiry. The scandal eventually exposed procurement from "ghost" farmers and inflated entries made with the complicity of officials.

On Monday, farmers staged a shirtless protest in Narsinghpur, alleging they had not received payment for the moong procured from them.


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