| Mega K-Oil Scam surfaces in FCS&CA Department! | | Out of 12,96000 K-oil liters, black market in South Kashmir gets 400000 liters | | saahil suhail
early times report
ANANTNAG, Jan 24: A mega kerosene oil scam worth crores of rupees has again hit the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department wherein around four (4) lakh liters of lamp oil allegedly goes to black market each month in South Kashmir.
A junior officer has also apparently turned whistleblower and disclosed that he was receiving excess supplies of about eighty-five thousand (85,000) liters of Kerosene oil each month.
Assistant Director Pulwama, who looks after distribution of essential supplies in the district, has written a letter to Deputy Director (Supplies) Kashmir and sought his directions in dealing with the excess supplies of Kerosene oil he has received.
"This office has been issuing PDS K-oil among 71460 NFSA (PHH/AAY) house holders only since years. As per sub-clause 6(2) of the SRO 285 there is a monthly requirement of 2, 14, 380 liters however this office has been provided with 3,00,000 (three lakh liters) of K-oil. Therefore, there is surplus/excess allocation of 85620 liters of k-oil to district Pulwama," the Assistant Director FCS&CA Pulwama has written to Deputy Director (Supplies) on 19th of this month. A copy of this communication lies with Early Times.
The Assistant Director FCS&CA Pulwama has requested the Deputy Director (Supplies) Kashmir to withdraw surplus allocation or issue the 'necessary instructions' for its distribution.
According to sub-clause 6(2) of the SRO 285, the FCS&CA department has to distribute 3 liters of kerosene oil to each priority household on subsidized rates.
"All beneficiaries in priority households under NFSA will be provided subsidized kerosene oil at the scale of 3 liters per family per month and the remaining quota of kerosene oil will be equally distributed among NPHH category beneficiaries not having LPG connection," sub-clause 6(2) of the SRO 285 reads.
According to reports, the kerosene oil wasn't being distributed to the BPL families properly.
"Most of the time we get just 2 or 2.5 liters per family," an Anantnag resident told Early Times.
This is for the first time an officer of the department had disclosed that he was receiving surplus quantities of Kerosene oil.
If the same formula is applied to other districts of South Kashmir then out of 12, 96, 000 K-oil liters only 9, 06, 870 liters are being distributed among the genuine beneficiaries and rest of the surplus quantity allegedly goes to Black-Market.
As per the documents and details available with this newspaper, the South Kashmir-Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam-require 9, 06, 870 liters of kerosene oil for 3, 04, 121 families falling under priority category (PHH/AAY), however it gets around 13 lakh liters each month.
With 134063 priority households, Anantnag gets 5,40,000 liters each month. While 4,02,189 liters are being distributed among the beneficiaries no one literally knows what happens to the excess quantity of 1,37,811 liters.
Similarly, Kulgam gets 240000 liters of K-oil for 58302 families and again isn't known to anyone what happens to 65094 liters.
Officials at Shopian informed that they receive 2,16,000 liters for 38800 families and they are providing 5 to 6 liters to each family. The actual number of priority households in Shopian is 38465 and therefore the district also receives excess quantity of K-oil.
It is roughly estimated that each month around 3,89,130 liters go to black market in South Kashmir and 46 lakh liters in a year.
The officials of FCS&CA Department are demanding a fair probe into this scam and action against the top officials involved in it.
Repeated attempts failed to contact top officials of the department including the Director Bashir Ahmad Khan as they didn't respond to our telephone calls. The Deputy Director Supplies had also switched off his phone.
Assistant Director FCS&CA Pulwama, Sheikh Enayat also declined to comment on the issue saying he was busy at home with a function. |
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