Adilabad: District officials in the erstwhile Adilabad district have stepped up vigilance over paddy procurement for 2025-26 following the detection of a Rs 1.39 crore fraud in Mancherial district, where staff allegedly uploaded fake paddy procurement data into the online Paddy Procurement Management System for 2024-25.
Paddy cultivation is more extensive in Mancherial and Nirmal districts compared to Adilabad and Komaram Bheem Asifabad. Officials in Mancherial and Nirmal are now thoroughly verifying farmers’ details and documents, including patta passbooks and Aadhaar, to prevent further fraud.
Investigations revealed that some local farmers were purchasing paddy from neighbouring Maharashtra at lower prices and reselling it at government procurement centres in Mancherial for the Minimum Support Price (MSP), along with a ₹500 bonus per quintal for fine-quality grain.
The inquiry found that staff had falsely recorded the purchase of 6,322.6 quintals of paddy grown on 740 acres belonging to eight farmers in Narsingapur village, Jaipur mandal, through a DCMS-run procurement centre. They also created fake transportation bills worth Rs 1.90 lakh.
A Civil Supplies Vigilance team, led by Chief Vigilance Officer Shashidhar Raju, investigated the case and filed charges against the mandal agriculture officer, AEO, DCMS management, and Sumukha Agro Industries, arresting three people.
The state government has since opened paddy and maize procurement centres across the erstwhile Adilabad district. Mancherial district expects to procure 2.32 lakh metric tonnes of paddy this Rabi season. The government has fixed the MSP at Rs 2,389 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 2,369 for B-grade, with an additional Rs 500 bonus for fine-quality varieties.
A total of 301 procurement centres have been opened under four agencies in Mancherial. In Nirmal district, collector Abhilash Abhinav and Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju inaugurated centres at Laxmisagar in Kadam mandal and Nagapur in Pembi mandal on November 2. Collector Abhilash Abhinav said 317 procurement centres have been opened in Nirmal, and about 30,000 quintals of maize were procured from farmers by the end of October.
