Book GSFC officials for under-weight fertiliser bags: Guj Cong

The Congress Tuesday demanded an FIR against officials of Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals for alleged involvement in selling fertliser bags lighter than the marked weight.

A delegation led by of state Congress Kisan Cell president Pal Ambaliya met Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Sanjay Prasad.

Ambaliya was accompanied by Congress MLAs Harshad Ribadiya, Kirit Patel, Lalit Kagathara and Lalit Vasoya.

After the meeting, Ambaliya told reporters that it was a "huge scam" to the tune of over Rs 200 crore.

"Instead of taking action against erring officials, the GSFC is trying to cover up this over Rs 200 crore scam. In their press conference yesterday, the GSFC claimed it was just a technical error which resulted into a loss of just Rs 16 lakh to the farmers. This theory is unacceptable" Ambaliya claimed.

"GSFC has looted our farmers. Top company officials knew that less fertiliser is being packed and sold to farmers. Yet, no action has been taken against them. We want GSFC to recover money from erring officials and refund farmers," he said.

Ribadiya said the delegation asked Patel and Prasad to intervene in this matter and force state-run GSFC to lodge FIR against its officials.

"We told them that for the sake of farmers, the government must compel GSFC to register an FIR against its officials. Till that does not happen, our agitation will continue. We also want GSFC to reduce the price of DAP fertiliser in order to compensate farmers who were given less fertiliser all these years," said Ribadiya.

Earlier Monday, Sujit Gulati, Managing Director of Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals had said moisture loss coupled with a technical error in the automatic weighing machine at the company's plant were responsible for lighter DAP fertiliser bags.

He said an independent expert would probe the issue.

A week ago, farmers in the state's Rajkot district had complained that 50-kg DAP fertiliser bags were lighter by around 400 grams after some of them carried out a check at GSFC's fertiliser distribution depot in Jetpur town.