FIR against PCF employees over Urad Dal purchase

Detecting alleged financial anomalies to the tune of over Rs 2.20 crore and a fake list containing names of 527 farmers pertaining to purchase of Urad dal, the district administration has lodged an FIR against the district manager and four employees of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Federation (PCF) Limited. Two alleged middlemen were also booked in this regard, officials said. "According to a report submitted by additional district magistrate (finance and revenue) a few days back, officials in- charge of the purchase centres had purchased 12,291 quintals of Urad at the rate of Rs 3,600 per quintal instead of the support price of Rs 5,400 per quintal. The in-charge officials also created and showed a fake list, stating that they had purchased the Urad Dal from farmers," Bareilly District Magistrate R Vikkram Singh said today. The committee under ADM (finance and revenue) was set up in January this year following complaints regarding the purchase. R Vikkram Singh added that in 2017-18 the PCF was to buy Urad dal from farmers at purchase centres in Bholapur and Sakarpur Nagra. "The district manager of PCF instead of opening the purchase centre, got the purchase done by a private organisation. This organisation had no experience of purchasing crops from the farmers. This created suspicion, and it came to light that the organisation used middlemen to purchase Urad dal from the market at the rate of Rs 3,600 per quintal. They also submitted a fake list consisting names of 527 farmers. The total purchase shown by them was Rs 6,62,09,490," the district magistrate said. He said all payments were stopped as soon as the anomaly came to light. A committee headed by ADM (finance and revenue) Jagatpal Singh found that the accused had made a profit of Rs 2.20 crore, the report which was submitted a few days back, he added. A case under various sections of the IPC has been lodged against the accused, he added. Chief Development Officer Satyendra Singh said, "The list (of farmers) had a large number of fake names, and those mentioned in the list were not present on the spot. The account numbers given also did not match with the account numbers of the farmers...The entire process of purchase has been found to be fake.