Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) launched a crackdown on paddy procurement committees across 12 districts of the state on Thursday. The officials said that they found irregularities worth more than Rs 5 crore during the searches.

The procurement centres were allegedly involved in filing fake registration of farmers. The searches exposed that the unprocured paddy, too, was marked as 'sold' in the e-Uparjan portal; their transportation and warehouse records were also prepared accordingly.

Maximum irregularities found in Balaghat, followed by Satna & Dindori

DG EOW, Upendra Jain, informed that recently reports came to light that 25 teams launched a crackdown on Thursday noon in 12 districts—Balaghat, Jabalpur, Dindori, Rewa, Satna, Maihar, Sagar, Panna, Gwalior, Narmadapuram, Narsinghpur, and Sheopur.

The teams checked 150 procurement committees and 140 warehouses, in which the teams had found irregularities in 19.91 quintals of paddy stock.

The police have taken action against 79 transporters, warehouse owners, rice mill owners, and committee members.

The maximum number of irregularities has been found in Balaghat district, followed by Satna, Dindori, Sagar, and Maihar.

The SPs of five districts—Bhopal Arun Mishra, Jabalpur Sunil Patidar, Sagar Devendra Yadav, Rewa Arvind Singh Thakur, and Gwalior Dilip Singh Tomar—had led the teams.