STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Alleging large scale irregularities and scams in the functioning of Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and Former Minister has urged upon the government to strengthen and activate its monitoring and vigilance cells so as to plug leakages and loopholes in the public distribution system in the State.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, Harsh said that ration pilferage had become a permanent sore with the prospective beneficiaries making regular complaints regarding non supply of authorised scale besides poor quality and sub standard ration.
Accusing the Department of Food and Civil Supplies of bias and prejudice in the process of revision of BPL lists, Singh said that the departmental functionaries were guided by extraneous considerations rather than the prescribed guidelines.
Seeking indulgence of the minister concerned, Singh called for a review so as to rectify the irregularities and to set right the tampered records. He cautioned to agitate the matter before the planning commission in case the fraudulent entries in the BPL records were not rectified.
Singh further called for affixing the lists of BPLs as well as APLs on the notice boards of all ration Depots and Fair price shops including the ration received, the quality of ration, scale to be provided to each beneficiary and the rate charged. He further called for inspecting the weighing machines used by millers and depot owners which reportedly over weighed and cheated the ultimate beneficiaries. He regretted that the Multi disciplinary Monitoring Cells constituted by Department of Food and Civil Supplies for checking the food grain laden trucks from FCI entering J&K had also become dysfunctional due to the Department’s apathy and sought their activation. He called for strict monitoring of kerosene supply which was largely being sold in the black market to the transporters.
Pointing towards ration scams in the recent past, Singh regretted that around 100 bags of ration were recovered by the public of village Rasli-Gaderan in a Jungle in Dudu Basantgarh last week but the department failed to take any action against the delinquents.
Likewise he lamented the non initiation of action against unscrupulous officers who were caught in Mansar recently along with trucks smuggling ration mills to Samba.
