Chandigarh, April 4: At a time when Punjab government is working overtime to ensure that its massive procurement operations are not a loss making exercise, an alleged scam worth Rs 56 crore, under which about 12,000 metric tonnes of paddy has gone missing from a private mill in Amritsar, has rocked the government. These grains were milled (dehusked) by the private mill owner for two procurement agencies of the state Pungrain and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC).
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has now ordered a vigilance probe into the case of missing paddy, procured during 2017 Kharif season, from two units of Veerumal Mulk Raj Jain rice mill in Amritsar.
The District Food and Supply Controller A P Singh has also been put under suspension by the Chief Minister’s Office. Amarinder’s Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar confirmed the action taken by the CMO on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Director Food and Civil Supplies Anindita Mitra has constituted a three-member committee to calculate the loss to both the agencies and find out how the grains went missing from the mill.
The details of the case came to the light on Monday when the agencies were told that the mill owner had gone missing and his creditors were laying hands on his goods in the mill. The officials of these agencies and department of food then swung into action and checked the stocks and found out that the grains were missing.
Principal Secretary Food, K A P Sinha recommended to the CMO that the district controller should be put under suspension. Reacting on his recommendation, the CM ordered his suspension and a vigilance probe into the entire matter.
Sources said as many as 219 consignments (27 tonnes each) were milled for PSWC and about 500 consignments were milled for Pungrain. Each consignment is worth Rs 8 lakh. An official said the the figures were tentative and the exact loss would be calculated by the three-member panel in a day or two.
Source Indian Express
