AIZAWL, Feb 18: Mizoram Agriculture Minister PC Vanlalruata on Wednesday said a potential multi-core embezzlement bid involving the government’s ginger support price has been intercepted following a timely probe.
He said in the assembly that the investigation launched by the Mizoram Agricultural Marketing Board (MAMB), which began after irregularities surfaced in July last year, revealed that several individuals attempted to exploit the state’s support price system by passing off outsourced ginger as their own harvest.
He said that the MAMB’s investigation team conducted four field operations, visiting various Secondary Collection Centres (SCCs), where gingers were collected and their surrounding clusters.
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“Their findings exposed a calculated attempt by greedy middlemen to purchase low-cost ginger from outside the state particularly from Myanmar and register it on the official government portal under the guise of local produce,” Vanlalruata informed the assembly.
Authorities noted a suspicious and sudden “spike” in the data uploaded to the portal, which would have led to an inflated payout of government funds, he said.
However, the MAMB confirmed that the fraudulent data was identified and rectified prior to the release of any funds.
He said that funds were released from the Aizawl Deputy Commissioner’s office and fortunately, they had not yet been distributed to the SCCs or farmers.
“Because the inquiry was launched immediately, we were able to prevent the misappropriation of public money amounting to Rs 4 to 5 crore. Since no funds were actually embezzled, no legal action has been taken against the suspects at this stage,” the minister said.
He identified four SCCs as the primary sites for these attempted fraudulent transactions.
Vanlalruata further informed the Assembly that the state government has also started the process of procuring ginger from local farmers at various SSCs on February 2.
He said that the government fixed the maximum support price for ginger at Rs 50 per kilogram.
“The government did not register any empanelled buyers and any minded private buyer will purchase ginger at the floor price fixed by the government at Rs 30-35 per kg. Any amount beyond this will be reimbursed to the local farmers through a support price,” he said.
Vanlalruata said that Rs 141.16 crore was released to ginger growers as support price during the last 2024-25 fiscal.
He added that only Rs 12.78 crore has been recovered or realised from ginger sales.
Fulfilling its pre-poll promises, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) government headed by Chief Minister Lalduhoma is purchasing five key crops — ginger, turmeric, broomsticks, chilli and paddy — locally grown by farmers through a support price system. (PTI)
