Centre supplied 57.07 crore kilo of wheat to Nagaland during 2003-2015. Where did it go?
DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 25 (MExN): The Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) Nagaland on Tuesday today alleged a 1000 crore Wheat supply “scam” in the Food and Civil Supplies Department (F&CS).
Revealing RTI information furnished by the F&CS department, ACAUT media cell in a press statement informed that the Centre supplied 57.05 crore kilo of Wheat as State quota under APL, BPL, AAY, Welfare Scheme and Hostel Scheme to the Nagaland Food and Civil Supplies Department (F&CS) counting from the year 2003 up to 2015.
However, distribution of Wheat under APL, BPL, AAY, to all the 11 districts under APL, BPL, AAY as per departmental records during the intervening 12 years, as furnished in the RTI response, stood at 72.81 crore kilos, which is surprisingly 15.74 crore kilo more than what the Central government had supplied to the State.
The superfluous Wheat supply has been portrayed in the year 2003-07, ACAUT informed, while explaining that, “The whole PDS is such a mess that even the records supplied through RTI portrays that in the years from 2003-07, the F&CS department distributed more wheat than was supplied by the Central government!”
Alleging that it is an “absolute fabrication” to claim that the F&CS department has been supplying Wheat to the villages in the districts when Nagas do not eat Wheat, ACAUT remarked that the only realistic conclusion is that there is “virtual 100% diversion of wheat to the black market.”
Calculate the 12-year quota of wheat supplied, that is, 51.07 crore Kg x Rs 25 per kg at present market rate, the monetary value comes to Rs 1276, 98, 25,000/- (one thousand two hundred seventy six crore, ninety-eight lakhs and twenty five thousand rupees), ACAUT pointed out. In other words, it is a Rs 1,276 crore scam which the general public can make their own conclusion as per the facts laid out, it pointed out. While appreciating the F&CS department for initiating tendering after a gap of almost 2 decades if not more, ACAUT stated that thousands of crores worth of PDS items like rice, wheat, levy sugar, SK Oil, etc., have not reached the intended beneficiaries in the districts because of the presence of syndicates.
“The table will clear to the public how the syndicate comprising of carriage contractors -local Nagas as decorative fronts, politicians, the department, and non-local local businessmen have pocketed thousands of crores of money,” it stated.
