VIJAYAWADA: Sleuths of Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) on Friday conducted raids at 74 fertiliser shops and registered 14 cases against traders under Section 6A of The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
According to officials, wholesale and retail fertiliser and pesticide shops across the State were inspected based on complaints from public over irregularities such as hoarding stock beyond permissible limit and selling of substandard goods.
Officials noticed that some traders had manipulated stocks of fertilisers with e-pos machines, while some others were selling fertilisers at prices higher than the maximum retail price (MRP).“Around 471 metric tonnes of fertilisers worth Rs 83 lakh, pesticides worth Rs 1 lakh and liquid pesticides worth Rs 8.8 lakh were seized from the traders,” the vigilance officials said.