More heads likely to roll in warehousing wheat scam

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, September 6

With the suspension of three employees of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) during the preliminary investigation into the wetting of wheat bags, more heads are likely to roll after the submission of final report to the corporation headquarters in Chandigarh.

A senior official of the corporation today went to Chandigarh to hand over the final report to the corporation managing director Abhinav Trikha. He took a serious note of the incident and constituted an 11-member team for probe.

Following preliminary probe, he ordered the suspension of Chheharta godown manager Ranjit Singh Uppal, in-charge Davinder Singh and assistant Harpal Singh yesterday.

Sources say more employees may face the music soon as the report points out a number of irregularities at the godowns in different parts of the district. There are 24 godowns in the district.

PSWC district manager Karandeep Singh said, “As the process took time and the team got late in preparing the final report after the verification, we could not sent the report yesterday. It will reach Chandigarh today.”

However, he refused to divulge the details about the irregularities found during the three-day long verification. He said the team conducted the probe in a transparent manner and it was up to the senior officials in Chandigarh to take further action.

According to sources, the team had sent wheat samples for examination and found moisture content very high. Wheat bags were also found soaked. It was done to increase the weight of the bags containing grains for bungling.

It may be recalled that the PSWC had recently received a complaint from Mandeep Singh Manna, former Congress leader, who had alleged that the staff deputed in the godowns in Chheharta had been wetting the government wheat meant for beneficiaries under the public distribution system. Wetting makes wheat bags heavier and gives the staff a chance to give less grains to beneficiaries and bungle remaining quantity. Upon receiving the complaint, Karundeep Singh, district manager of Amritsar, had reached the spot but the entire staff had fled by then after locking the godown. The locks were broken and the wheat bags were found drenched. After that, the corporation had ordered an inquiry.