Funds meant for reviving primary agricultural societies and district cooperative banks in the state are to be used to buy crockery. The order to use the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) funds for crockery worth Rs 5,230 has come from the principal secretary of cooperatives.

To ensure that the crockery is purchased, the cooperative department has asked all the joint registrars in the state to get a demand draft of Rs 5,230 issued from each of the 8,600 PACs in favour of Hitkari Ceramics Pvt Ltd. The company will supply the crockery kit containing bone china tea sets, thermos flasks, gas stoves and a few other items.

The PACs, whose primary job is to distribute credit to farmers for buying seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, are unaware of the “rationale” behind the order. Similar instructions have been conveyed to other cooperative bodies, like urban cooperative banks and the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank. In all, an estimated Rs 10 crore will be spent on the purchase of crockery.

Officials said no written orders have been issued till now. The joint registrars posted at divisional headquarters were verbally told to get the demand drafts from the PACs issued at the earliest. Later, they were reminded over the phone.

Asked about the justification for it, state cooperative minister Swami Prasad

Maurya said: “This issue has come to my notice now, and I have summoned the principal secretary for a detailed report. The Government will not allow such forced purchases by the PACs.”

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