APMCs to face scrutiny of spending of grants in last 15 yrs

Mumbai, Aug 16 (PTI) Alleging that the AgriculturalProduce Marketing Committees had wasted or syphoned offgovernment grants, Maharashtra Minister of State for theAgriculture, Sadabhau Khot today said an inquiry would beconducted into the spending of grants in the last 15 years. Asked about Congress and NCP’s opposition to the APMCAct amendment bill, Khot said several leaders from theseparties including MLAs were involved in the administration ofAPMCs. "They fear losing their leadership if farmers are allowedto sell their produce in an open market directly (instead ofat APMCs)," he said. "APMCs have wasted huge government grants….I will orderan inquiry into how this money was spent," he said. The minister said he was also going to proposeappointment of an officer from the office of deputy registrar(co-operative) as secretary of APMCs. "APMCs have wasted and syphoned off large funds receivedfrom the state exchequer. They have even looted farmers byimposing levy on loading-unloading, administration charges andin many other ways," Khot said. The minister also said that he was considering ‘SantTukdoji Maharaj Adarsh Gram’ scheme to promote organic farmingwith the focus on producing export quality vegetables. Being a farmer’s son and having spent my life agitatingover farmers’ issues, I have now got the opportunity to changethe face of agricultural ministry, he said. "My ministry will be pro-farmer and will bring reforms inthis department," he said. "At present, the horticulture department selects a fewfarmers from several villages for organic farming (training).Hundreds of crores might have been spent but not a singlefarmer who has met me says he produced vegetables of exportquality. Even the department has no record of vegetablesexported from our state," Khot said. "Instead, I will choose specific villages and developthem as ‘export villages’," he added. PTI MM KRK SRYBAS