GH flood victims get PDS rice in place of flood supply quota

TURA: At a time when the Meghalaya government has been going all out to ensure the victims of this month’s flood in the plain belt region of West Garo Hills are provided with sufficient relief materials, some suppliers have been found to be allegedly providing food rations from the Public Distribution System (PDS) to displaced people.
This week, a survey of the flood affected areas of the plain belt region where gratuitous relief has been announced for 14 days by the state government found that in certain areas of Phulbari constituency suppliers are playing truant by providing the cheaper PDS rice and other rations instead of the government recommended quality rice supply cleared for the same.
Villagers from Bholarbita East in Phulbari constituency who received the gratuitous relief early this week alleged that the rice supply was from a PDS godown in Phulbari and the quality was inferior in comparison to that received by others in different relief camps in Rajabala and Selsella constituencies.
It was found that while the government allotted flood relief packages of rice were neatly sealed in rainproof and colorful plastic packaging, the PDS rice offloaded for distribution in some of the relief camps came from the regular gunny bags stored in PDS godowns.
Questions are being raised about the alleged involvement of both suppliers and government officials in the distribution of PDS rice in place of relief supply cleared by the government.
It is alleged that some unscrupulous suppliers in cohorts with some officials are attempting to bill the state government with inflated billing for relief supply while all along providing cheaper rations from PDS stocks.
Last week’s floods caused deluge to a 140 villages in the plains of Garo Hills affecting as many as 1.2 lakh people in three community blocks.