Agri officials probe dumping of expired agro products

ARAKKONAM: Ranipet district agriculture officials are investigating the circumstances under which expired agro products, including paddy and groundnut seeds, azospir and fertilizer, which were stored in a dilapidated godown were found dumped in a dry lake bed near the town on Tuesday.

The goods were removed from the unused godown belonging to the Agriculture Department’s extension centre located in front of the taluk office. Sources said that a person belonging to the block office sought the keys to the unused godown to stock cement bags.

However, instead of storing cement bags, the expired agro products were taken and dumped into a dry lakebed nearby. When the news was revealed, Ranipet district officials went into damage control mode.

Ranipet JD (Agriculture) Vadamalai visited the spot along with a team of officials and inspected both the godown and the dumped site.

Asked about this, he told DT Next, “the goods date back to 2014 and were stocked in the godown. However, a new godown started functioning at Melpakkam from 2019. However as the agro products were not distributed to farmers, the concerned officials including an AO (agriculture officer) and some AAOs (assistant agriculture officer) were asked to explain and a total amount of Rs 7 lakh was recovered from them.”

Asked why the dumped products were retrieved from the dry lakebed, Vadamalai said, “We retrieved them as the dumped goods included plastic. Also, the location where it was dumped is promboke land. However, they were retrieved as expired goods have to be disposed of properly which we will do shortly.”

Asked about his stating to the media at the spot about an enquiry to find the person who borrowed the keys of the godown, he said, “A report has been submitted to Ranipet Collector S Valarmathi. However we know that only someone from the BDO’s office could have given the keys and hence we will soon find the person and initiate action.”