Now, a scam in organic farming

Delhi's total geographical area is around 1.48 lakh hectares and if government's own data - National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) - is to be believed, over 1 lakh hectare was brought under organic farming.Considering Delhi's population and spread of residential areas, the figures look unbelievable, especially when data points that the very next year the area under organic farming in the national capital would drop to just 58 hectares.Highlighting such indicators of "massive fraud and data manipulation" not just in Delhi but across India including states like Odisha, the Crop Care Foundation of India (CCFI) has approached prime minister Narendra Modi's office demanding thorough investigation into the alleged fraud by departments that are under union agriculture ministry's control.It is learnt that Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has assured them of full investigation into the matter.In their representation, CCFI brings out other such unbelievable data alleging large-scale data manipulation across India with the most glaring ones seen in states like Delhi and Odisha. CCFI also demanded that further investment by the government in organic farming should be immediately stopped until the scam is completely unearthed.As per CCFI's analysis of data by National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), a central government body which oversees the growth and implementation of organic farming in India, a deep and widespread manipulation of data regarding organic farming has come out.NPOF, which was started during the first year of UPA-1, is also one of the well-funded Central government schemes. The analysis comes at a time when India is hosting a global exhibition on Organic farming from Nov 6-8 in Kochi, Kerala. The event is scheduled to be inaugurated by the Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh.CCFI chairman Rajju Shroff said he believes "their analysis data has revealed only the tip of the iceberg"."We request PM Narendra Modi to immediately initiate a forensic audit to unearth what we believe is a massive data and financial fraud in the agriculture departments. We strongly believe the data were spiked in order to artificially boost organic farming in the country. These revelations also bring to light the previous government's inefficiency and also its intentions to loot the state exchequer by funding dubious policies to promote organic farming in India," said Shroff.According to agriculture ministry officials, for every hectare area of organic frming, central government was giving subsisdy of around Rs 10,000.