AAP govt orders special audit of Delhi Agri Marketing Board

NEW DELHI: The AAP government has ordered special audit of income and expenditure of the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB) and seven Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCS) for the financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The government’s move came around one-and-a-half months after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had swept the APMC polls winning 14 of the total 18 seats across seven wholesale mandis in the national capital.

The decision to order special audit of both DAMB and APMCS seems to be aimed at finding out alleged irregularities during the previous regimes of BJP and Congress.

The Directorate of Audit has been asked by the Finance Department of the Delhi government to audit DAMB and seven APMCS for the financial years of 2013-14 and 2014-15 and and submit a report within 20 days.

“Several teams have been formed by the Directorate of Audit to look into income from market fee in APMCS, engineer works/capital works executed by APMCS/DAMB, expenditure on procurement in APMC/DAMB,” said a senior government official.

According to the order issued by the Directorate of Audit, seven APMCS which are to be audited are Azadpur, Okhla, Keshopur, Narela, Najafgarh and Ghazipur.

The office of the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB) is located in Janakpuri.

Agricultural Produce Market Committees safeguards the interest of producers and each market has APMC which consists of farmers, traders, political leaders and among others.

DAMB is the supreme body headed by an IAS officer.