Aurangabad: Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse on Sunday posed as a farmer and visited a fertiliser shop in Aurangabad after receiving complaints against local traders allegedly hoarding urea in the area to sell them later at exorbitant prices.
The minister had, reportedly, sent a dummy customer to the Navbharat Fertilizer shop located in Jadhav Wadi area to verify the complaint before visiting it himself.
Upon visiting the shop, the minister, who represents Malegaon Outer Assembly constituency in Nashik district, demanded 10 bags of urea but was told that by the shopkeeper that he was out of stock.
The agriculture department officials rushed to the shop when they learned about the minister's visit.
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The minister then went through the shop's balance sheet and pointed out the availability of urea while demanding to see his stock register which the shopkeeper failed to produce.
Bhuse along with the agriculture authorities further conducted a raid at the shop's warehouse where they found 1, 386 bags of urea, following which the minister directed the district authorities to take action against the shopkeeper and sent the agriculture department's quality control officer on forced leave.
