Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 8: A multi-crore ration transshipment scam involving some officials of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD Department surfaced in Udhampur district two months ago, but there has been no attempt to fix accountability and punish the culprits. The scam came to fore when Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary along with former Assistant Director CAPD, Zeeshan Tahir, were conducting surprise inspections in different mills, godowns, stores and distribution shops of the department, said sources. Tahir, the whistle blower, was immediately transferred, said sources. They said that officials had been wrongly projecting distance between the mill to FCI godowns on the paper to facilitate overcharging for transportation. During surprise inspections in FCI godown and grinding mill located just opposite to each other in the heart of Udhampur town, it was established that practically no expenditure was being incurred on transshipment of ration from the go-down to the mill for grinding purpose. On the papers, however, it was reflected that ration was first unloaded at FCI godown and then shifted to the grinding mill. Actually, the ration was always unloaded directly in the mill premises, sources said. During scrutiny of the record by the Deputy Commissioner, it came to fore that an amount of Rs 390,231 was shown as labour charges for loading and unloading of trucks and Rs 17, 24,544 as carriage charges from food corporation of India godown to the nearby mill. Moreover, under direct induction of wheat in the mill Rs 12, 25,311 was shown as expenditure on carriage and labour. In this way, bills worth Rs 21.14 lakh were being raised every month for fake transshipment from godown to the mill. Sources estimated the scam worth Rs 30 cr and said that many officials are allegedly involved in it. Sources said after the scam surfaced in July, the administration handed over entire record to the Crime Branch of the police for registration of a case. "If the administration had done thorough investigation without succumbing to pressure of the influential officers involved in this scam, the accused would have been booked by now," said sources. They said the kingpin of the scam managed key posting despite his tainted past. DC Udhampur could not be contacted for his comment. CAPD Zulfikar Choudhary, however, needs to be patted for his efforts to clean the department of the corrupt people and promote the right people. He has, in a series of meetings with the officials concerned, emphasized on the need to bringing transparency in the CAPD operations. |
