Dhananjay Munde raises allegations of tur scam

MUMBAI: Leader of Opposition in the MLC, Dhananjay Munde, on Tues-day levelled allegations against the state government’s marketing department over the “tur” controversy, claiming that the latter’s contract with private company Saptashringi was a scam.

Mr Munde alleged that Saptashringi bought the tur in South Africa and Myanmar at much lower prices and sold it in Maharashtra. The company’s job was to crush and polish the raw tur. The state saw a bumper tur crop last year but the farmers were allegedly cheated due to import, he said. Mr Munde claimed that the state government suffered losses to the tune of '2,500 crore. Meanwhile, the government will verify the allegations. On the topic of the opposition’s resolution of last week, Mr Munde referred to the tur scam. He named the Nashik-based private company that had won the tender for crushing and polishing of tur. “This company had no experience in the business. The chief secretary raised objections over clearing the tender to it. But the marketing federation did not listen. This led to nearly '1,400 crore extra for the state government. The state government itself said that it had bought high-class tur from the farmers. Why then did it give the job of crushing and polishing the tur to such an inexperienced company? This led to losses of 7kg per quintal, giving an extra '139 crore to the company,” said Mr Munde.

He also asked the government to take action against the director of the state marketing federation, Anil Deshmukh. “If one officer takes a decision despite the chief secretary having red-flagged the tender, then there is something serious. If the government did not take action against him, questions will be raised about the government’s intentions,” he said.