- An inspector exposed a scam by dissolving mustard seeds that turned to mud in water
- NAFED procured mustard at Rs 2,650 per quintal during the 2024-25 rabi season
- 35-40% of the mustard stock was clay granules, not actual grain, in the Rehli godown
An inspector in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district picked up a handful of mustard seeds and dropped them in a bowl of water. A few seconds, the seeds began to break apart and dissolve, melting into mud.
This action by the inspector blew the lid off a massive scam in Madhya Pradesh's Minimum Support Price (MSP) procurement system, revealing that 35 to 40 percent of the mustard stock was not grain at all, but clay granules cleverly passed off as food.
The stock had been procured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) during the 2024-25 rabi season at the Centre's MSP rate of Rs 2,650 per quintal.
The fraud surfaced after NAFED auctioned the stored mustard at a Madhya Pradesh Warehousing and Logistics Corporation (MPWLC) godown in Rehli to a buyer in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh. During lifting of the stock, the firm M/s Shivshakti Sagar Trading Company complained that a large portion of the produce looked suspicious and of questionable quality.
A joint inspection followed, involving NAFED officials, warehouse authorities, cooperative society representatives and surveyors. Investigators found that around 8,950 quintals of mustard had been procured through two cooperative societies Chhirari and Rehli Sub-Centre, Khairana. Of this, 8,693 quintals had already been sold, while 257 quintals remained in storage. The adulteration estimated at 35-40 percent per quintal means thousands of quintals of clay may have entered the supply chain.
The probe also flagged that mandatory farmer codes were missing from the sacks, despite being a basic requirement. Quality checks were allegedly cleared by National Commodities Management Services Limited (NCMML) surveyors, raising questions about oversight and possible collusion.
Calling the scam a grave risk to consumers, NAFED filed an FIR. Five officials, including cooperative society directors, surveyors, and the then MPWLC branch manager have been booked.
In just one warehouse, the government suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1 crore but the larger, more disturbing questions remain about food safety and the silent impact on the poorest consumers.
