AAP, kisan manch allege cover-up in seed scam

Activists threaten to take out protest march tomorrow

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, January 7
Activists of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Haryana Kisan Manch are up in arms against the police and the management of the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) for alleged cover-up exercise in the case of siphoning off subsidised seeds to benefit a private party.

Accusing the police of adopting soft attitude towards HSDC’s former Sirsa manager Om Pal Singh Panwar, storekeeper Dev Raj Goyal and trader Sunil Chawla, AAP and manch activists alleged that the police were deliberately not arresting them though their bail applications had been rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The activists led by Prahlad Singh Bharukhera, a state executive member of the AAP and state convener of the manch, met Senior Superintendent of Police Saurabh Singh and threatened to take out a protest march against the police on Thursday if the accused were not arrested by then.

The AAP and manch activists alleged that the top management of the HSDC had been trying to cover up the scam through a sham inquiry into the distribution of wheat seeds in villages under the “Seed Village Scheme”.

“The fabrication of the inquiry report is confirmed from the fact that the report shows distribution of double the quantity of seeds in many villages than the maximum quantity that could have been sent to a village,” alleged Bharukhera.

Demanding removal of HSDC managing director BS Duggal from the post and a thorough inquiry into the scam by appointing IAS officer Ashok Khemka as the corporation head, the AAP and the morcha have threatened to hold a demonstration on this issue here on Thursday.

Duggal said the siphoning off of subsidised wheat caught by the activists in a sting operation last month and the inquiry into the distribution of seeds under a scheme were two separate issues.

“While in the first case, the police have already registered an FIR and the HSDC too has suspended the officials responsible for the scam, the inquiry into the scheme was conducted on his orders and the distribution was found to be in order,” said Duggal.

He admitted that in some villages, HSDC officials had distributed double the quantity of seeds allowed under the norm, but he said the distribution was completely transparent.

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