SHILLONG, June 14: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said the recent report on the Food Corporation of India scam has nothing to do with the public distribution system in the state.
The Assam Police had a few days ago unearthed a food grain scam involving Meghalaya by seizing 1 lakh bags of rice of FCI, Shillong from a private godown in western Assam’s Boko.
Sangma said he is waiting for a written report but the verbal reports he has received indicate that the state received rice for PDS under the National Food Security Act, 2013, for May and June in advance.
“There is no question of Meghalaya rice lying (in Boko) and if it is, we have no idea,” Sangma said on Monday, adding there could have been a mistake or misunderstanding.
He said rice of such a huge quantity would have come to everybody’s notice had the bags gone missing, insisting that the rice has nothing to do with PDS or Covid relief.
The Chief Minister, however, said a clarification has been sought from the Social Welfare Department.
Taking note of the reported scam, the Opposition Congress has asked the government to constitute a high-level inquiry into the matter. Sangma did not give any assurance in this regard.
The police in Boko had seized the rice after locals reported suspicious movement of 13 trucks in the area. Following the interrogation of the driver and the co-driver of one of these trucks, the police raided the godown of Maruti Quality Products Pvt Ltd, a company tied up with Nestle multinational food company.
The godown is owned by one Deepak Agarwal.
The police found that the FCI rice was repacked by the company as East Sunrise brand, which is a part of Continental Milkose India Ltd and supplied to the Assam Rifles. Details provided by the Assam Police said FCI Shillong division had sent the rice under the Wheat-Based Nutrition Programme (WBNP) and NFSA through the Directorate of Social Welfare, Meghalaya.
Social Welfare Dept clarifies
Social Welfare Director, D.D. Shira said the Centre allocates rice under the WBNP to different states. The Directorate of Social Welfare in turn allocates the rice to the approved manufacturer (Continental Milkose Ltd) lifted from the FCI godown. The manufacturer then processes it into a variety of ready-to-eat fortified food products in the factory which is supplied to the Anganwadi Centres under the nutrition programme.
There has been no instance of non-supply of food items so far, and complete indented quantities have been received, he said in a clarification. The Directorate of Social Welfare has been sending random samples of the food items for lab analysis and quality testing from time to time to ensure conformity to the quality and nutritional norms.
The department is awaiting an official letter from the LO/Assam government concerned for enquiry and further appropriate action against the supplier, the clarification added.
