By Our Reporter
Shillong: The State Government has expressed its keenness to implement the revised Supreme Court guidelines to track the distribution and supply of food grains through a computerized system by the end of this year.
Responding to the recurring cases of diversion of PDS items into the black market, the State Government on Thursday announced that it will implement the revised procedure of allotting PDS items through a computerized system by December this year.
“The Supreme Court has given general guidelines which involves a system of computerization and has issued a specific direction to all the states to implement it by the end of this year,” Chief Secretary WMS Pariat told reporters here on Thursday.
Once the revised guidelines are implemented, it would ensure transparency and improvement in the distribution of PDS items, Pariat added.
The Chief Secretary also said that the computerized mechanism would enable monitoring of the movement of food grains which would ultimately help to check their diversion into the open market.
Pariat was also of the opinion said that once the computerized system is implemented, the State also would be able to monitor the quality of food grains being supplied under the PDS.
It may be recalled that on Monday, 180 bags of PDS rice were diverted to an open market and in this relation police arrested four persons including two owners of a shop and a whole seller.
The East Khasi Hills District Administration has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the diversion of food grains in Shillong.
It may be mentioned that similar cases of diversion of food grains meant for the poor were previously detected in Ri-Bhoi, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills districts.
Going back to September 2009, a five-member delegation of the Central Vigilance Committee led by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice DP Wadhwa, had attended a public hearing on PDS in Shillong and had later stressed on the need for computerization of the whole process of distribution of food grains.
Police is yet to interrogate the wholesaler of Laitumkhrah area L Surong in connection with the diversion of the PDS rice into the black market.
“We have not yet been able to interrogate the wholesaler since she was not present in her house,” a senior police official informed on Thursday.
When asked if the wholesaler had absconded, the police official replied in the negative, saying that she was a very aged lady.
Meanwhile, a senior government official informed that the court has remanded Weston Nonghuloo who was picked up for questioning in connection with the case, has been remanded in three-day police custody.