Chhatrapur: Rice worth Rs 1.58 crore has been misappropriated by millers in Ganjam district. This was revealed by a special audit report of the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC).
Some millers have allegedly been favoured in this matter while it has been alleged that the Civil Supplies department has not taken any action against eight errant officials.
According to reports, some millers had taken paddy from the Civil Supplies department in 2012-13 for milling and providing rice in return. However, 10 millers had not deposited the rice obtained after milling the paddy.
They had not done so in spite of repeated reminders from the OSCSC from 2014 to 2018. The defaulting rice millers have not also provided money in return.
It has been alleged that some officials had not taken steps to collect rice or recover the money from them.
Upset over inaction against the defaulting millers, the OSCSC had decided to frame draft charge against eight officials including then district Civil Supplies Officer (CSO) and marketing inspector in 2018.
Sources said charges should have been framed against a CSO, three marketing inspectors and four authorised officers for showing favouritism to the millers.
However, as things stand, now many of these officers have retired. It should be stated here that recently the MD of OSCSC, Biswajit Keshari Das has sent another letter (14344) to the district CSO to frame draft charges against the errant officials.
In 2012-13, the errant millers had been asked to pay Rs 1.58 crore against the pending rice. However, the department has not specified the total amount of paddy the millers had taken.
PNN