India Today: Bengaluru: Friday, May 26, 2017.
After the
tragic death of Anurag Tiwari, the young IAS officer who worked as the
Commissioner in the Food and Civil Supplies department, many irregularities are
coming out of the closet.
A social
worker and RTI activist from Gokak town in the Belagavi District of Karnataka
has come out with allegations that in the month of February and March, there
were irregularities in purchase of food grains to the tune of Rs 23 crore.
The activist
has raised questions on the prices at which certain commodities have been
procured by the Department of Food and Civil Supplies for distribution to
beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme.
According to
the information he obtained under the RTI Act, 2005, and from public documents
and agriculture-based websites, he found out that a huge scam took place with
the direct knowledge of those in power.
He has
pointed that a total of 2,10,468 quintals of substandard green gram was
purchased from National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited for a sum of
Rs 12.653 crore in February and March this year. The allegations are that the
department paid an average price of Rs 6,012 per quintal, much higher than the
average price which is in the range from Rs 3,800 to Rs 4,500 per quintal in
the market.
In this way,
with a minimum difference of Rs 1,000 per quintal between the average
procurement and market prices, the department paid Rs 21.04 crore over and
above the market price for green gram.
Similarly,
the department purchased 88,320 quintals of S-30 grade sugar at Rs 400 per
quintal kg and another stock of 16,900 quintals for Rs 4,300. However, the
price in the open market was only Rs 38. The price difference shows that Rs
2.37 crore extra was paid to procure sugar.