Fake cotton seed seized

Fake cotton seed packet with name Baba Ramdev

Adilabad agriculture officials recently seized 22 fake cotton seed packets bearing the name Baba Ramdev in Hindi on them from Kova Bheem Rao’s house in Devguda village in Hasnapur gram panchayat in Utnoor mandal.

The fake seed packets with the name of Baba Ramdev along with ‘Sri Ganesh seed packets’ (16) came from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan states. These fake seed cotton packets were being sold t the gullible farmers by local agents.

Baba Ramdev promotes Ayurvedic products under Pathanjali brand. He had Ramdev recently declared that the business was being developed to achieve Rs 10,000 crore turnover in 2016-17.

It is a general practice that businessmen who manufacture fake products use the names of prominent cinema personalities and blockbuster movies to attract the people.      

     

The fake seed packets with different names flooded the interior tribal areas in Utnoor division and especially in the villages in the mandals sharing borders with Maharashtra.

Joint director of Agriculture, K. Koteshwar Rao said that they came to know that women actively involved in the fake seed rocket and they were supplying these fake seeds in the night and early in the morning to the local agents.

Koteshwar Rao said they had filed a complaint with Utnoor police against Bheem Rao who was selling fake cotton seed packets to other farmers adding that it was surprising that even big farmers had purchased fake cotton seed packets offered at a cheaper price. 

The sellers were asking them to pay the money for seeds only after harvesting cotton.

It is observed that the farmers especially Adivasis who were affected by the successive drought and incurred a huge loss due to crop damage in the last two seasons are purchasing these fake cotton seeds.