Coming down heavily on those selling spurious seeds, Telagana Police have booked cases against 13 people under the Preventive Detention Act.
Director General of Police M. Mahendar Reddy on Thursday asked all field level police officers to show zero tolerance against offenders involved in production, distribution and sale of spurious seeds by filing cases under the act.
He along with Secretary, Agriculture, B. Janardhan Reddy held a meeting, via video conference with all District Superintendents of Police, Commissioners of Police and District Agriculture Officers.
The meeting was held on the direction of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to take measures to control sale of spurious seeds with the onset of monsoon.
The DGP directed the officials to take strong legal action with immediate effect to contain the menace of spurious seeds.
"So far 13 cases under PD Act have been initiated against spurious seed offenders in Telangana. The Field Police Officers have been instructed to develop a system of sources for identification of the activities of spurious seed offenders in real time and initiate legal action against each and every such offenders by invoking strong legal provisions," an official release said.
Police officers at each police station level were asked to open history sheets for all spurious seed offenders and mount surveillance on a regular basis. They were also directed to take legal action against the entire network of offenders involved in the financing/manufacturing/distribution/transport/sale of spurious seeds in each case.
The databases of the criminal networks involved in spurious seeds activity will be maintained at district and state levels.
Janardhan Reddy instructed agriculture officers to take the help of police department in fighting the menace of spurious seeds. Dr.Keshavulu, Director Seed Certification, Telangana, sensitised all the police officers about the legal provisions for identification of genuine and spurious seeds.
It was resolved that the Police, Agriculture and Intelligence Departments will work together to eradicate the menace of spurious seeds. The results achieved by all SPs and Commissioners will be monitored on a daily basis by the DGP.
( With inputs from IANS )