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| Troops getting ration unfit for human consumption ! | | | What a disaster ?Troops guard
ing the Indian border in sizzling summer and shivering winter are being fed with food that is unfit for human consumption.This bitter truth has been unravelled first in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG) of India and later endorsed by a parliamentary panel.The panel has rapped the Indian Army authorities for widespread malpractices in its ration supply chain thereby confirming CAG findings in which it had been stated that the troops deployed on the border and in the remote areas of the country were being fed with food items that were not fit for human consumption.In a report tabled in Parliament the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) has slammed the Army over glaring deficiencies in the supply chain management.The PAC report has confirmed the earlier report submitted by the national auditor which said that the soldiers had been supplied rations that were 28 months past the expiry date.The Committee said it was shocking to learn that estimated shortage life of a number of dry rations was extended by the Army laboratory beyond its permissible limit.
The report has said that these dry rations were consumed by the troops even six months to 28 months after the expiry of their normal estimated storage life.The PAC has found a mismatch in issue and receipt of rations which could have not been possible without the complicity of officers concerned.It has said that the scam in feeding the soldiers with ration unfit for human consumption could run into severel hundred crores because the ASC spends more than Rs.1440 crores every year for buying rations.Strange it may sound but it is true that rations worth Rs.1.92 crores have been untraceable in Udhampur based Northern Command in 2008.The PAC has also found that 74 per cent vegetablees and fruits issued to units were not in accordance with the prescribed norms.The PAC is suspicious of the malpractices in the unit run canteens with an annual turnover of over Rs.8500 crores because the PAC members were not allowed by the concerned authorities to scrutinise its accounts.
These disclosures are not only nerve rattling and unfortunate but unbelievable because whatever malpractices have been found by the CAG and the PAC should have not been committed in the Armed Forces supposed to be the most disciplined wing in the country.Well whatever the CAG and the PAC have found in the supply of ration,vegetables fruit and other eatables to the soldiers does not seem to be new.However,till three decades ago the senior authorities in the Army Supply Corps(ASC) used to mint money by allowing the suppliers to supply lesser quanity of foodgrains mutton,vegetables,fruit and other items than quoted in the tenders.But invariably whatever stuff was supplied to the Army was fit for human consumption.Later a small section of the Army functionaries were hit by added greed encouraging them not only to accept lesser quantity of ration and other items than quoted in the tenders but also accept ration unfit for human consumption.This unhealthy and dangerous trend needs to be checked.And whenever and whereever any Army functionary was found accepting ration unfit for human consumption from the supliers the licence of the supplier should be cancelled and those invoved in the loot be sacked.Besides this the Defence Ministry should set up five committees,comprising experienced auditors,for monitoring the quality of ration supplied to the troops in all the five commands in the country. |
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