MP: Another 4k quintal paddy goes missing in Maihar dist
More than 4,200 quintals of paddy worth around Rs one crore went missing in Maihar district.
Based on the complaint of the officials of the MP Civil Supplies Corporation, a case was registered against three office bearers of Seva Sahkari Samiti, Jaroha, Manikwar. This co-operative society was also a procurement centre for paddy, at Ram Nagar police station of Maihar district.
As per the FIR, Pankaj Borse, manager of MP Civil Supplies Corporation, Satna, complained against Deependra Singh, manager of the co-operative society, procurement incharge Sanjeev Tiwari, and operator Anil Kumar Dahayat that 4,203.6 quintal of paddy worth over Rs 96,68,280 is missing and the accused siphoned it off.
According to the FIR, although the procurement process of the paddy was completed on Jan 23 this year, a large quantity of paddy was still seen as yet to be transported at the said co-operative society. The physical verification of stock at the said society was ordered on Feb 17. Thereafter, the stock was verified, and in his report dated Feb 19, the branch manager of the Ram Nagar Co-operative Bank informed that around 4,203.6 quintals of paddy is missing at the society. The said report was again verified by joint teams of the Civil Supplies Corporation and also the offices of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, wherein the report of the branch manager of the co-operative society was found to be correct. Senior officials were informed, and thereafter a complaint was made at Ram Nagar police station.
“We registered a case against three accused on the basis of the complaint. A hunt is on to arrest them, and a detailed probe is also being carried out,” Ram Nagar police station incharge, Tikaram Kori, told TOI.
Overall, more than 1 lakh quintal of paddy procured at the minimum support price (MSP) are ‘missing’ from 10 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Paddy procurement in the state ended on Jan 23 this year, and a total of 43.52 lakh metric tonne of paddy was procured on record. Before it ended, a scam related to bogus procurement of paddy — procurement only on paper — surfaced in Sohagi of Rewa, worth Rs 1.43 crore, on Jan 13. In light of the bogus procurement at Sohagi in Rewa, the food and civil supplies department wrote to all the collectors to physically verify the stocks at all the procurement centres on Jan 24. Thereafter, several FIRs were registered across districts like Rewa, Jabalpur, and Balaghat. The process of FIR is underway in Maihar district too for ‘bogus procurement’ of paddy.
On March 6, EOW also conducted raids across several districts, and massive irregularities surfaced as the probe is still ongoing.
This article has been republished from The Times of India.