Shahjahanpur,

10 Dec (HS): Two lekhpals have been suspended following the discovery of

massive fraud in paddy procurement verification, authorities said on Wednesday.

Rajneesh Kumar Mishra, Additional District Magistrate (Administration), stated

that police complaints have also been filed against intermediaries involved in

the bogus verification.

According

to Mishra, complaints have been received in Puwayan and Tilhar tehsils alleging

fraudulent paddy verification. The

authorities reportedly authorized paddy crops for farmers who did not produce

them, allowing them to purchase the product from the market and transport it to

procurement centers. Mishra stated that an investigation discovered that in

Tilhar, verification was granted in the name of a person who did not even

possess property, but in Puwayan, land where sugarcane was cultivated was

wrongly portrayed as having a paddy crop.

According

to the investigative report, Lekhpals Ashish Kumar (Puwayan) and Anshu Bajpai

(Tilhar) were suspended. FIRs have been filed at the appropriate police

stations against individuals involved in the fraudulent verification, he added.

Mishra stated that district authorities have now been asked to conduct daily

surprise checks at paddy procurement centres and transmit attendance and full

reports to him via WhatsApp every evening. No

farmer should be denied the right to sell paddy at procurement centers under

any circumstances, he stated.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi