The general meeting of the Bidar Zilla Panchayat, held in the city recently, unanimously passed a resolution to suspend the joint director of agriculture who has allegedly deceived the farmers by issuing cheques to dealers instead of the beneficiaries.
   It was also alleged in the meeting joint director of agriculture Aman Shekab was hatching a plot to siphon off the subsidy amount released to farmers under various schemes.
   The officer had issued a cheque of Rs 57 lakh for a single company to provide irrigation facility and the lead bank had taken objection for it. Since the irregularities were noticeable in the deal, the officer should be immediately suspended, Congress members Amruth Rao Chimkod, K D Sidrama and Shivaraj Hasankar demanded.
   However, ZP President Anil Bhoosare and CEO Jitendra Nayak clarified that the ZP had no powers to suspended him. Reacting sharply to their reply, the members said urged them to pass a resolution to suspend the officer and send it to the government. Other members, including BJP’s Rajashekhar Nagamurthy, supported the Congress members. The resolution was unanimously passed as no one opposed it.
   Aman Shekab said why they were bent upon suspending him when no farmer had complained about it.
   He said the bullock carts supplied for distribution among farmers were of low quality. “I am ready for an enquiry in this regard. Discuss it”, he defended his stand.
   Sidrama of Congress alleged that there were massive irregularities at all levels including drip irrigation, tractor and tiller distribution. Intervening in the discussion, Shivaraj Hasankar said no one knew how Rs 2.43 crore of agriculture department were spent including the ZP CEO and demanded action against the accused officer.
   Later, Amruth Rao demanded the setting up of a committee, led by the ZP president, to look into the alleged irregularities in the agriculture department.
   He also demanded the distribution of subsidy amount directly to the farmers.