4 Punjab food supply dept officers suspended following anomalies

Tribune News Service 
Chandigarh, July 18 

Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Thursday ordered immediate suspension of an assistant food supply officer (AFSO) and three food supply inspectors.

Ashu said, “The Food and Civil Supplies department deals with distribution of foodgrains to the economically weaker households. Any attempt of pilferage or diversion in the foodgrains for the poor cannot be overlooked. It is not just dereliction in duty but is grossly unethical.” 

The minister said that Sumit Kumar, posted as Food and Civil Supplies inspector at Gurdaspur; Jagtar Singh, posted as inspector at Hoshiarpur; Khushwant Singh, posted as inspector at Ludhiana; and Jaswinder Singh, AFSO, Ludhiana, had been suspended over the glaring deficiencies in the distribution of foodgrains. 

Enlisting the initiatives introduced to usher in fairness in the system, Ashu said end-to-end computerisation of public distribution operations had been brought about, with real-time monitoring system which could be done on the portal, epos.punjab.gov.in. 

He said that for the purpose of social audit and for ensuring proper disbursal of foodgrains amongst the beneficiaries, the state had constituted vigilance committees at the FPS/village, block and district levels, adding that this was supported by a robust grievance redressal system of the department.