Shillong, June 7: Social Welfare Minister, Paul Lyngdoh said that the inquiry report which was submitted to the government had ruled out allegations of the rice scam as baseless.
While speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Lyngdoh said that there was no iota of truth in any of the allegations adding that the views of the Advocate General (AG) on this matter was very clear and made pointed observation that the allegations had no legs to stand upon and therefore the case cannot be regarded as the scam.
Informing that they have also obtained the views of the Law department, he further said that AG had also made an observation that the actual incident and the case was delayed because of lack of coordination with the Assam police where the scam was supposed to have taken place.
“It was further observed that in future there should be a definite timeline for inquiries so that parties alleged to have committed such scams and the department concerned are not dragged into needless controversy,” Social Welfare Minister said.
When asked how 1 lakh rice bags landed in the go down at Assam, he said that as far as the file notings, it is just a matter of the location which was not properly recorded and therefore the case was handed over to the Assam police.
“On further inquiries and based on the inquiry report the file then went through the Law department and the AG and they were very clear that no such scam had taken place,” Lyngdoh added.
It may be recalled that the state government had on July 29, 2021, ordered a probe into the alleged rice scam that was unearthed almost two months earlier when Assam Police seized one lakh rice bags each weighing 50 kg from a private godown in Boko.
It is believed the rice bags provided by the Centre at subsidised rates landed up at the private storehouse for the purpose of repackaging and sale to third parties.
The inquiry committee under Justice Garg, who retired from the Madhya Pradesh High Court, was asked to inquire into the matter of rice allotted to Milkose (India) Limited for the supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) found in the godown at Boko.