Focus on repeat offenders of spurious seed: Minister

Officials told not to book cases for “simple and rectifiable mistakes”

Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has asked the task force teams comprising police and agriculture officials working against the spurious seed menace to focus on the repeat/habitual offenders and not to register cases on “mistakes” which could be rectified by seed dealers and companies. At a virtual meeting held on Saturday with district-level teams of the task force along with Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy, Agriculture Secretary M. Raghunandan Rao, Inspector General of Police Y. Nagi Reddy, Managing Director of Seed Development Corporation K. Keshavulu, the Minister said that the recent efforts of the task force had created fear among spurious seed producers and sellers. He suggested that task force teams register cases for reasons such as receipts of seed sold not having the signature/stamp of the seller but at the same time be stern against those indulging in corrupt practices. Lack of signature on the receipt would not mean that the seed sold was spurious and cases of cheating under Section 420 of the IPC should not be booked, the Minister said and direct the sellers to sign the receipts.