Vigilance officials conducted raids on 59 private godowns in Kurnool district on Friday and seized paddy and pulses worth Rs 510 crore. Officials said that 2,48,451.47 tonnes of paddy and pulses were stored in the godowns. The value of pulses stored in godowns is about Rs 310 crore. They said that all the stored commodities were in the name of farmers. As there is scarcity of food items in the open market, their prices have skyrocketed. Vigilance officials are examining the records of private godowns. Officials suspect that traders store commodities in the name of farmers to create artificial scarcity. They said that farmers were likely to sell their produce as they would require investment to start sowing in the kharif season.

As per details given by officials, 6,133.63 tonnes of paddy worth Rs 80 crore was stored in godowns, as also 10,878.31 tonnes of red gram worth Rs 28.283 crore, 1,15,976.14 tonnes of Bengal gram worth Rs 278.34 crore, 9,063.78 quintals of groundnut worth Rs 23.56 crore. Another 14 varieties of food grains were also stored in go-downs.

Officials are trying to ascertain details relating to the stored commodities. The vigilance and enforcement officer, Mr Prasad, said they would take a decision on what to do with the pulses after completion of the inquiry.