UP Two lekhpals suspended for paddy procurement fraud in Shahjahanpur

Shahjahanpur (UP), Dec 10 (PTI) Two lekhpals have been suspended after a major fraud in paddy procurement verification came to light here, officials said on Wednesday.
    Police cases have also been registered against the middlemen involved in facilitating the fake verification, Additional District Magistrate (Administration), Rajneesh Kumar Mishra, said.
    Mishra told PTI that complaints were received claiming fraudulent verification of paddy in Puwayan and Tilhar tehsils. The officials allegedly certified paddy crops for farmers who did not cultivate them, enabling them to buy the crop from the market and send it to the procurement centres.
    Mishra said an inquiry found that in Tilhar, verification was issued in the name of a person who did not even own land, while in Puwayan, land where sugarcane was sown was falsely shown as having paddy crop.
    Based on the probe report, Lekhpals Ashish Kumar (Puwayan) and Anshu Bajpai (Tilhar) were suspended, the ADM said.
    FIRs have been lodged at the concerned police stations against those involved in getting the fake verification done, he added.
    Mishra said district officials have now been instructed to conduct daily surprise checks at the paddy procurement centres, and send attendance and detailed reports to him via WhatsApp every evening.
    No farmer should be denied the opportunity to sell paddy at the procurement centres under any circumstances, he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)