Adilabad: The Marketing Department has suspended seven marketing secretaries after discovering major irregularities in cotton procurement by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) across the state.
It was found that a large number of cotton purchases were made in the names of farmers without proper temporary registration documents. In many cases, the amount of cotton purchased was double the actual yield, creating opportunities for fraud.
The Agriculture Department had already collected data on the number of farmers and the total acres of cotton cultivation in the state. This information was shared with the Marketing Department. Additionally, marketing officials developed an app to record farmers’ details.
However, investigations revealed that instead of actual farmers selling cotton at CCI centers, middlemen, in collusion with some marketing officials, sold cotton in farmers’ names. These transactions were carried out without registering Aadhaar numbers or obtaining proper certificates from the Agriculture Department.
As a result of these findings, seven marketing secretaries in the Warangal region have been suspended for their involvement in the irregularities.
The suspended officials include Jainath marketing secretary Kamble Madhukar (who was also in charge of Adilabad), Chennur agricultural market secretary Ramanjaneyulu, Janagama secretary Sangineni Srinivas, Peddapalli market secretary Prithviraj, Bhadradri Kothagudem secretary Srinivas, and Chinnakodur secretary Parameshwar.
