Mumbai: BJP MLA Suresh Dhas, who faced criticism for meeting Minister Dhananjay Munde, accused Munde and his close associate Valmik Karad of involvement in a Rs 300 crore scam during Munde’s tenure as agriculture minister.
“Munde orchestrated suspicious transactions, including large-scale purchases without requests for the same from farmers or regional officers. The proposals were sent and government resolutions were issued on the same day. Recommendations of state agriculture commissioner Pravin Gedam to carry out transactions through DBT were ignored,” Dhas said.
“Under the orders of Deputy Secretary Santosh Karad, advance payments were made for procurement of Nano Urea, Nano DAP, and measures to control snail infestations, with approval from the Chief Minister. Munde, however, decided to bypass the existing DBT route to make payments for farmers. In the name of advance mobilisation of funds, Munde bypassed the mandatory approval of such decision by the scrutiny committee under the chief secretary,” Dhas alleged.
While crops like cotton are harvested in December, the procurement of fertilisers for them were given later in March, he said attacking Munde, adding that the latter “manipulated the tender process to engineer a scam”.
He purchased battery-operated pumps at Rs 3425 each, when the actual cost is Rs 1500, thus ensuring a loss of Rs 45 crore to the state exchequer, Dhas alleged.
