Aizawl: Mizoram Agriculture Minister PC Vanlalruata on Wednesday said a major attempt to defraud the state’s ginger support price scheme was successfully blocked due to a timely investigation, preventing a potential multi-crore loss to the exchequer.
Speaking in the Assembly, the minister said the probe was initiated by the Mizoram Agricultural Marketing Board (MAMB) after irregularities were detected in July last year.
The investigation revealed that a group of individuals had attempted to misuse the support price mechanism by falsely registering outsourced ginger as locally grown produce.
According to Vanlalruata, the MAMB team carried out four field operations, inspecting several Secondary Collection Centres (SCCs) and their surrounding clusters.
The inquiry exposed a deliberate scheme in which middlemen allegedly sourced low-cost ginger from outside the state, particularly from Myanmar, and uploaded it on the official government portal as local produce to claim subsidies.
Officials flagged a sudden and abnormal spike in portal data entries, which would have resulted in inflated government payouts.
However, the minister said the fraudulent entries were detected and corrected before any money was disbursed.
Funds had already been released from the Aizawl Deputy Commissioner’s Office, but had not yet reached the SCCs or farmers.
“Because the inquiry was launched immediately, we were able to prevent the misappropriation of public money amounting to Rs 4 to 5 crore,” Vanlalruata told the House, adding that no legal action has been initiated so far as no funds were actually siphoned off.
He said four SCCs were identified as the main centres linked to the attempted fraud.
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The minister also informed the Assembly that the state government began procurement of locally grown ginger from farmers on February 2, under the support price scheme.
The maximum support price has been fixed at Rs 50 per kilogram, while private buyers are required to purchase ginger at a floor price of Rs 30–35 per kg, with any additional support paid to farmers by the government.
Vanlalruata said that Rs 141.16 crore was released as support price to ginger farmers during the 2024–25 fiscal year, while only Rs 12.78 crore has been realised so far from ginger sales.
He added that the Zoram People’s Movement government, led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma, is implementing its pre-poll commitment by procuring five major crops — ginger, turmeric, broomsticks, chilli and paddy — from local farmers through a structured support price system.
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