STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Public Distribution System (PDS) rice meant for the financially weaker sections of society is often siphoned off by a section of cooperative societies and fair price shop owners and sold illegally in the open market. The Chief Minister’s Vigilance Cell today arrested four officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department for their alleged involvement in the PDS rice scam.
The four arrested accused are Food and Civil Supplies Department deputy director Montu Kumar Das; administrative assistant of the same department; Kulen Saikia, retired Superintendent of the department, Mohd Mujibuddin Ahmed; and retired DDS of the department, Bharat Chandra Bordoloi. They will be produced before the court of the special court tomorrow.
Recently, a PDS rice scam was unearthed in Dhekiajuli. The Dhekiajuli Mizimari Gaon Panchayat Samabai Samiti (GPSS) was allegedly illegally selling rice meant for PDS in the open market. After complaints were made to the Chief Minister, the CM’s Vigilance Cell arrested seven persons, including the secretary of the Samabai Samiti, Hemanta Talukdar.
In the absence of a strict monitoring system, cooperative societies sometimes illegally sell rice meant for PDS. They either deprive some beneficiaries of getting the rice or give them less than the stipulated quantity of rice. There are also some people whose names are included in the National Food Security Act (NFSA) list of beneficiaries but they are financially well off and so they do not come to collect their share of the PDS rice. The cooperative societies take advantage of this and
illegally sell the allotted rice of these beneficiaries.
Some days ago, another PDS scam came to light in Moirabari in the Morigaon district where around 10,000 quintals of PDS rice was illegally sold.
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