Massive irregularities in appointment of fertilizer dealers of Brahmaputra Valley Fertiliser Corporation Limited: AASU

DIBRUGARH: The Namrup regional unit of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) staged a dharna in front of the Brahmaputra Valley Fertiliser Corporation Limited (BVFCL) office on Monday seeking an inquiry into the massive irregularities and large-scale corruption in the appointment of more than 800 fertilizer dealers.

AASU has also demanded the resignation of the present in-charge CMD of BVFCL, Pradip Kumar Banik, for not taking any action against the large-scale corruption.

“In the last financial year 2023–24, BVFCL has incurred huge losses up to 105 crore due to such illegal practices allegedly done by some of the officials of the company. More than 800 dealers were illegally given the appointment by taking huge sums of money from them. SK Singh, the then Chief Marketing Officer and previous CMD, SP Mohanty, has given the approval to all the dealers,” alleged Aboni Kumar Gogoi, Dibrugarh AASU district president.

He said, “We have given memoranda to CMD Pradip Kumar Banik to initiate an inquiry against irregularities and large-scale corruption done by the top officials of BVFCL, but till date no inquiry or action has been taken against them.”

“BVFCL being a central government PSU, they are duty-bound to give equal opportunity to all new dealership applicants by publishing an open NIT/paper advertisement in local newspapers and web-hosting the dealership notification on the company’s website. But no such process has been followed in the company for the appointment of above 598 numbers of marketing dealers, and such a large number of dealers have been appointed through the pick-and-choose process, and in return for dealership appointments, a large sum of money has been collected from all ad hoc new dealers by select few marketing officers like S. K. Singh and Sunil Tripathy, in deep collusion with ex-CMD S. P. Mohanty,” Gogoi alleged.

He further said, “No field survey report has been carried out by the marketing department. No spot check has been done by field staff with respect to each applicant. Spot checking by field staff is very essential to verifying the storage capacity mentioned in the dealership applications. No screening committee nor any selection committee has been constituted by the then CMD, S.P. Mohanty, to ensure fairness in the appointment process.”

“Recently, a board meeting was held in the BVFCL, but the present in-charge CMD, Pradip Kumar Banik, didn’t place the irregularities and large-scale corruption by the officials of the BVFCL before the board. We also demand that he resign because he is supporting the officials who were involved in  irregularities and corruption,” he said.

 He alleged that “A large sum of money of around Rs. 20 crore has been collected by S. K. Singh and Sunil Tripathi from ad hoc dealers in return for their appointment in the company. The bribe money collected by marketing officers has been regularly shared with S. P. Mohanty.”

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