Kuchinda: Vigilance sleuths today conducted simultaneous raids on four places associated with Ujwal Singh, loan manager of Large Area Multi-Purpose cooperative Societies (LAMPS) at Paruabhadi under Kuchinda police limits in Sambalpur district, in disproportionate assets case.
A team led by Sambalpur Vigilance DSP BK Nayak and other officials of Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Rourkela vigilance officials are conducting the raids.
The sleuths are searching Ujwal's residence and his office in Paruabhadi, his paternal house and residence of his in-laws at Korad of Deogarh district.
"We received an allegation against Ujwal Singh, branch manager of LAMPS Paruabhadi that he has amassed properties disproportionate to his known sources of income. Therefore, raids are being conducted at four places, his paternal house, house of his in-laws, his residence in Kuchinda and his office," said Nayak.
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As the Rabi crop loans distribution process has begun, the Secretary asked the LAMPS and PACS’ staff to call off the strike, sources said.
Meanwhile, the staff of LAMPS and PACS said the agitation will continue until their demands are not met.
“The government is trying to threaten us issuing such orders but we will not withdraw our protest and continue until all our demands are fulfilled,” said secretary of Odisha State Cooperative Employees' Coordination Committee, Digambar Nayak.
The LAMPS and PACS’ staff are on dharna in front of the State Assembly over five point charter of demands which include pension scheme for elected representatives of LAMPS, medical insurance, government employees’ status and implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations in cooperative societies.
Earlier in September, the staff of LAMPS had submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Agriculture and Finance Ministers over their demands.
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As per reports, the incident occurred when two employees of LAMPS were transporting the money from the cash room to the cash counter. Three bike-borne armed miscreants barged into the office and decamped with the cash after terrorising the employees at gunpoint.
"Three armed miscreants entered the office while we were transferring the cash to cash counter. We could not identify as the miscreants had covered their faces with black cloth," said one of the LAMPS staff, Satyabhama Behera.
On getting information, Brahmani Tarang Police officials rushed to the spot and have initiated a probe into the matter.
In a letter to all its area managers, the Markfed-Odisha has strictly directed them to henceforth ensure that cooperative societies buy fertilizers only from the federation.
The Markfed also barred all PACS, LAMPCS and FSCS to purchase urea from any other agencies including the Indian Farmer's Fertilisers Cooperative Limited (IFFCO).
It may be noted that Markfed is the only state-run agency which provides service in the field of marketing and distribution of chemical fertilizers to PACS/LAMPCS in the State. The State Government has also provided Rs 75 crore to Markfed for pre-positioning of urea.
However, there were allegations that some societies were becoming dealers of IFFCO by taking licenses from the district agriculture officer and thereby violating the rule.