'Corrupt' officials let mills function illegally, reveals RTI

Times of India: Pilibhit: Friday, 05 December 2014.

An RTI filed by a local activist revealed that the district food and marketing department has been indulging in corrupt practices for the last three years by allowing five blacklisted rice mills to operate despite orders from the district administration as well as the regional food controller.

Activist Ankit Mishra, on Wednesday, produced details of the department's records, that he had obtained under an RTI, before additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), Alok Singh, at the district headquarters in Pilibhit.

Mishra told TOI that five rice mills of Puranpur tehsil area in Pilibhit, which earlier also had trading licenses for the purchase of grains, had been allowed to purchase wheat in the procurement year 2012-13. These mills were Bharat Rice Mill, Dayal Rice Mill, NK Sons, Nav Bharat Rice Mill and Guru Nanak Rice Mill.

Providing copies of official records to TOI, Mishra said that these five mills had purchased wheat from farmers on behalf of government agencies. However, instead of supplying the purchased wheat to the government, they illegally sold a major portion of the stock in the open market. As the market price that time was higher than the minimum support price, they earned heavy profits on the sale.

Finding them guilty of illegal practice and in breach of the government contract, the district administration blacklisted these mills and registered FIRs against them. The administration had also initiated proceedings of recovery against these defaulters but they are still pending.

The regional food controller at Bareilly had issued guidelines to the district food and marketing officer, Pilibhit, in a letter dated November 20, 2012, that the blacklisted rice mills as well as those having FIRs in their names would not be provided with the paddy supply for hulling under any circumstances.

However, ignoring the food controller's orders, the food and marketing department attached these five mills to government paddy purchase centres in the same year.

This reveals a nexus between the rice mills and the food and marketing department as the attachment process of the mills with purchase centres is still continuing, explained Mishra on the basis of the official records he got.

When asked by TOI about the irregularities, the ADM said that he would promptly set up an enquiry on the matter and see that strict action is taken against defaulters. He said that the concerned employees as well the official of food and marketing department would also be enquired upon and necessary action would be taken.