Patna: Seeds of mustard and peas which had been sent to East Champaran for distribution among flood-hit farmers remained locked in godowns of two fertiliser dealers.

The matter has now come to the fore and the agriculture department has initiated a departmental probe to fix the responsibility for this failure.

The matter was brought to light by JDU MLC Satish Kumar on December 14 when he got a chance to interact with chief minister Nitish Kumar in Motihari while he was there in connection with his Samiksha Yatra.

The JDU MLC pointed that that 740 quintals of mustard seed and 80 quintals of pea seeds had been sent by the agriculture department for being distributed among flood-hit farmers so that they could go for alternative cropping as their standing crops had got damaged due to floods.

"The local officials gave the seeds to two local fertiliser dealers and claimed that the seeds would be distributed from the shops of these dealers. Even though the agriculture department had provided the seeds before Chhath festival, the same were never distributed and are still lying in the godowns of the dealers," Satish said. He said he shared this information with the chief minister and said the dealers might have stocked the seeds with an aim to sell them sometime later. "The CM immediately reacted to my complaint and directed the agriculture department officials to look into the issue," he added.

A team of two officials from the agriculture department visited Motihari last week and gathered information about the issue raised by the JDU lawmaker.

Sources in the agriculture department said the officials found out that seeds were not distributed and were lying with the fertiliser dealers. "We are however not aware that what action did the officials recommended in this case," added the source.

Agriculture minister Prem Kumar on Thursday said he was aware of the issue and action would be taken against those found responsible for laxity in seed distribution work among flood-hit farmers.

"A committee of the department is looking into the details and once the report would be submitted, action would be taken accordingly," the agriculture minister said.

Satish maintained that he was not going to leave the issue midway and would continue to pursue the case till responsibilities would not be fixed and action would be taken against officials and dealers who deprived the flood-hit farmers of the benefit which the state government had provided to them at the time of distress.

During the 2017 flood, more than 500 people had lost their lives in Bihar and standing crops across thousands of hectares had been damaged. East Champaran was one of the flood-affected districts this year.