Foodgrain ‘scam’ hits Meghalaya

An alleged foodgrain rip-off involving the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has added to the embarrassment of the Meghalaya authorities going through flak for poor administration of the COVID-19 disaster.

Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma has denied his authorities’s involvement within the “scam” detected in adjoining Assam a couple of days in the past. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a constituent of his coalition authorities, and the Opposition Congress, have demanded a probe.

NGOs within the State have additionally slammed the federal government for shielding the supplier-official nexus and giving an extended rope to “tainted companies” feeding off dietary programmes meant for kids, younger ladies and moms to combat malnutrition, maternal and toddler mortality.

The police in Assam’s Kamrup district had final week seized an estimated 1 lakh luggage of rice, every weighing 50 kg, from a warehouse in Boko, west of Guwahati. A case was accordingly registered beneath related sections of the Indian Penal Code entailing imprisonment as much as seven years.

Officials stated the rice was procured by FCI, Shillong however the proprietor of the warehouse had repackaged the rice to be equipped to the Assam Rifles.

“The quantity of rice seized is huge and we have written to the agency concerned to know if they are the owner of the rice bags. Their response is awaited,” the district’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Kalyan Kumar Pathak stated.

Mr. Sangma insisted the rice luggage seized had no reference to the general public distribution system (PDS) in Meghalaya. He stated the State had already obtained its quota of PDS rice for May and June.

“We have no idea if rice belonging to Meghalaya is lying in Assam,” he added.

But he stated he has sought a clarification from the Social Welfare Department though the Minister involved, Kyrmen Shylla dismissed the division’s involvement within the alleged rip-off.

“The diversion of rice is unacceptable. The matter warrants a probe by a high-level committee as this is a huge violation of the rights of the people of Meghalaya,” Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh stated.

“The rice was meant for the poor. If it a case of diversion, the culprits should be arrested,” the BJP’s State vice-president, Bernard Marak stated.

The Civil Society Women’s Organisation and Thma U Rangli Juki, two NGOs specializing in human rights and girls’s points, known as for the social auditing of the supplementary vitamin programme. They sniffed corruption within the State’s Social Welfare Department as the identical Assam-based non-public agency concerned within the rice bag “scam” was concerned in underhand offers 10 years in the past.