NASHIK: As soon as the kharif season begins in the district, some forms of fraudulent activities by the dealers are being exposed by the farmers. On this backdrop, the agriculture department has taken notice of the same and raided the agricultural sales centers which were indulged in misappropriation. In a short span of three weeks, the flying squads, deployed to keep check on agriculrural sales, raided 14 shopkeepers in the district and revoked licenses of these shops.
A total of 2,58,000 MT of chemical fertilizer has been demanded for Nashik district. Out of which 24,000 MT of urea fertilizer has been made available to the district. Vendors should sell fertilizers at the printed price. Such instructions have been given by the agriculture department to the vendors in the district before the start of the kharif season.
The agriculture department said in case any dealer is found guilty of creating artificial scarcity or selling fertilisers above MRP, trade licence of them will be cancelled besides taking other actions under the law. E-PoS machines have been provided to a total of 1380 vendors in the district to ensure that there is no black marketing in the sale of fertilizers. Accordingly, biometric machines are being used to sell fertilizers.
Fertilizers are recorded in the e-PoS machine with the farmers’ fingerprints if the Aadhaar Card and mobile number is linked. The message comes on the farmer’s mobile. Also,the shopkeepers have to inform about all this to the agriculture department. In the last few days, the flying squads have raided the sales outlets at Malegaon, Nandgaon and Umrane. Instructions have been given to display fertilizer stocks, their prices etc. outside the shops.
“e-PoS machine brings transparency E-pos devices have stopped the fraudulent activities at the fertiliser selling outlets. If there is a discrepancy in the sale of fertilizer, the seller’s license is suspended. In the last few days, the licenses of 14 vendors in the district have been revoked.”- Ramesh Shinde, Agriculture Development Officer
