Jajpur: Irregularities have come to the fore during food grain procurement at the Odisha State Warehousing Corporation (OSWC) godown at Dhanmandal and the RMC godown at Panikoili in Jajpur.
Four show-cause notices were served on the two procurement inspectors at the godowns, establishing anomalies in the process, a report said. It was alleged that food grains supplied to poor people under NFSA are repackaged and recycled here.
The authorities of OSWC and RMC are supposed to procure and preserve food grains safely at their godowns.
It was found that procurement inspector of Panikoili-based RMC Biswanath Tudu was accused of committing anomalies in issuing gate passes to contractors under supply chain management system (SCMS).
Taking into this account, the district civil supplies officer has served a show cause on the procurement inspector July 23. He had also been show-caused in a similar case June 18, this year.
As per rules under the SCMS, the rice supplied by millers should be allowed entry into the godown first before it is supplied to distributors. But this rule was violated at the RMC godown.
Millers’ rice was directly supplied to the distributors leading to mess in the system. Moreover, large quantities of rice are suspected to have been misappropriated in the names of supply contractors.
The district civil supplies officer in his show cause notice has pointed out violation of guidelines and dereliction of duty by the procurement inspector.
The district civil supplies officer has also issued show cause notices twice to procurement officer of OSWC (Dhanmandal) Sanjib Kumar Sahu April 27 and April 15, for furnishing faulty data about SCMS.
In his reply, Sahu had explained that the anomalies had cropped up as supply contractors had engaged a number of vehicles in the rice transportation.
The district civil supplies officer has also asked Sahu July 23 about why he had not received rice from millers even though there was enough space at the OSWC godown.
The OSWC has capacity to stock 92000 quintals of food grains while only 13,673.75 quintals of rice and 851.94 quintals of wheat were stocked at the godown. The procurement inspector was accused of ignoring the directives.
It may be noted here that the quality control cell of the Union food and public distribution department had inspected the stocks at Dhanmandal godown and detected that large amounts of food grain were ridden with pest.
Earlier, managing director of the state civil supplies corporation, during his visit to Jajpur, had inspected Panikoili godown and found large stocks of rice unfit for consumption.
The rice was supplied by custom millers in Bhadrak district and Brahmanigaon and Baljitpada. Thereafter, the district civil supplies officer was asked to look into the irregularities.
PNN