“The man who cheats on the one who feeds him is- Mukund Maheshwari Rathi”, this quote is heard often in the south Indian states. This name has been very familiar to the officials of the Department of Agriculture in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, and Telugu since time immemorial. The company was started in 2001 under the name Nagarjuna Agro Chemical Pvt. In 2015, the Karnataka government blacklisted the company. This agro company despite failing to serve what it promised, even ended up exploiting the farmers of the state in an aggressive manner. So, complying with the agreements, the initial action of blacklisting the company has already been done. Considering the farmers’ loss and overall aspects, the license was canceled and the company was blacklisted as per an order issued in 2014 stating that the business should not be run by any chance.
In 2016, the Kerala government registered a CBI case. Crime Number R.C. 13AJ2016J CBI Cochin. The CBI has arrested him for allegedly misappropriating funds in gypsum purchases. With the company being located in Hyderabad, even though it is the capital of the Telugu states, there are allegations that the deal has been going on in many ways before.
Changing it to Kiah Biotech from Nagarjuna Agro.
Nagarjuna Agro has a bad reputation for throwing tenders. With this, the authorities backed down as soon as the name was mentioned at the tender events. The officials from the tenders department used to restrict themselves from letting Nagarjuna Agro from winning any tenders soon after the past history was uncovered. With this going on, the management of Nagarjuna Agro came up with an alternative idea of setting up a new company called Kiah Biotech, a new firm by the same management which is currently active and is participating in the tenders. Apart from being a private limited company, Iit won various tenders from the Telangana State Cooperative Marketing Federation Limited for works worth crores of rupees. Information says that humongous bribes were paid to the agriculture officials for this.
Outrageous robbery with fake delivery challans.
All in all, it comes down to the political scenario in Telangana which is really in turmoil as of now. The inability to hold on to power and the prevalence of corruption gave the ruling party leaders an opportunity to easily commit scams. Unfortunately, no money has been recovered yet, and the company is in fact threatening the government by filing cases in the High Court. Although the vigilance authorities have submitted a report on the Rs 63 crore scam, the government is not taking any action against the officials responsible for the scam.
This is how the scam happened
Back then, the government planned to set up baskets that will restrict the pests, especially to protect the cotton crop from the pink mite. It is in this aspect the scam has happened. It was carried out by the famous Agro company that gave the bills of Rs 63 crore stating that they have given the baskets to the farmers, where in fact they didn’t. With the prior information on this possible scam, the vigilance officers were able to thwart it to some extent. Kiah Biotech has been contracted to combine the eight baskets into one unit at a cost of Rs 376 per unit. 16 lakh 76 thousand units with Rs 63 crores were opened for irregularities in tenders without any regulations.
In addition to this, with the help of an IAS officer and a few politicians, this agro company submitted the bills stating that these baskets were given in 2019 in Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Adilabad, Bhupalpally, Jaingamam, and Nalgonda districts. With some research into the matter, it was found out that the bills submitted were actually unoriginal, there were forged signatures saying that they were handed over to other farmers. However, due to a huge number of complaints to vigilance, a preliminary inquiry was conducted and a bill of Rs 8 crore was released to some districts. It has issued notices to the officials involved in the scam, but no clearances have been received from the government. In addition to this, Kiah has filed cases in the High Court for biotech bills.
What to do now?
What are the irregularities in the actual tender process? The one who has been the managing director of a blacklisted state-owned agrochemical company like Nagarjuna is actively running another company named Kiah, why is no one questioning that? How can someone set up a new business venture when one of his previous ones is in mess with litigations? Those who are causing harm to the farmers must face a serious CBI inquiry and they should be charged with criminal cases! If at all KCR wants to do something for farmers at least for showing off, why can’t he punish the corporate entities like Nagarjuna first? Society can do a lot better if strict actions are taken against these blacklisted entities.
We have seen the TRS leaders saying multiple times that scams are not happening in their governance. But there are a lot many that are happening but maintaining a very low profile. Some of them are exposed by Tolivelugu Crime Bureau with proper proof. For many other shocking revelations about the status of politics and policies in Telangana state, stay tuned to Tolivelugu’s crime stories.
Advertisements
Here will keep sharing the new developments through our exclusive research.
