Two officers suspended in fake paddy purchase scam

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 11

The state government has placed the services of two officers — one employed with Pungrain and the other with Markfed — under suspension with immediate effect.

The two officials are accused of having made fake entries for paddy purchase on the official portal of the state Food and Civil Supplies Department.

Launching a thorough investigation into the scam, believed to be going on for the past decade, the Food and Civil Supplies Department has also written to the Secretary, Punjab Mandi Board, asking him to initiate a probe against their officers and arhtiyas (commission agents) involved in the scam.

The suspensions were ordered today by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu after the scam of fake purchase of paddy was discovered by the department and highlighted by The Tribune in its news columns.

The two officers — Vikas Jindal of Pungrain and field officer of Markfed Charanjit Singh — will be stationed at the headquarters during the course of their suspension so that they have no access to the records in the mandis and chances of manipulation of records is minimal.

The government has also withdrawn the work of procurement from Pungrain and Markfed in the mandi at Patti - where the alleged scam was unearthed last week.

Anandita Mitra, Director, Food and Civil Supplies Department, said very limited quantity of paddy was left to be purchased and the other two food procurement agencies — Punsup and Punjab Agro Industries Corporation — would carry on with the procurement at the Patti mandi. Patti is the hometown of former Food and Civil Supplies Minister Adaish Partap Kairon.

The department officials had caught the inspectors making entries for purchase of 1.7 lakh bags of paddy without any paddy actually being purchased.

The Tribune had highlighted that how a nexus between the arhtiyas, mandi officer, inspector and rice millers was leading to bogus billing of paddy without any purchase. The arhtiyas, mandi officer and inspectors make fake entries in the portal for paddy purchase, following which the money is released by the government. The miller purchases cheaper paddy from other states, processes it and sends it to the government. In the process all four make profit.

Mitra said they had been disturbed at how the acreage under paddy had not gone up, but procurement was increasing. This shows that procurement increase was affected only on paper, and the government continued to pay for paddy that was not even purchased.

• The two officials — Vikas Jindal of Pungrain and Charanjit Singh of Markfed — are accused of having made fake entries for paddy purchase on the official portal of the state Food and Civil Supplies Department.
• The government has also withdrawn the work of procurement from Pungrain and Markfed in Patti, where the “scam” was unearthed last week.