Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 23
The main accused in the “missing wheat scam” of Jandiala Guru in Amritsar is believed to have siphoned off crores of rupees given as MSP on wheat that was neither brought to mandis nor purchased. Fake entries for the purchase of 87,100 quintals (1,84,344 bags) of wheat (valued at Rs 20 crore) were made and it was shown to have been transported to godowns in Jandiala Guru.
The police and Food Supplies Department, trying to unravel the truth behind the missing wheat from eight godowns, believe the maximum purchase was done only on paper, indicating connivance of sellers, commission agents, auction recorders of the mandi board, agency inspectors and transporters.
New stock verification norms soon
- Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies, Rahul Tiwari, has said even as the probe is on, they are looking at fixing new norms for physical verification of grains by all officers
- Principal Officers will be assigned for regular stock verification. Those failing in their duty will be punished. We are looking at IT-enabled and GPS-linked apps for verification, he said
While six persons — arhtiyas from whom the wheat was “purchased”, are being questioned and the records being tallied. The Food and Supply Department has reportedly again written to the Punjab Vigilance Bureau to take over the investigation.
The accused Inspector, Jasdev Singh, who is believed to have escaped to Dubai, was allegedly in cahoots with Amritsar-based trader Ravinder Singh Bunty, who was arrested by the CBI recently. Preliminary investigation has shown that the trader, accused of manipulating the e-auction of wheat, would get release orders for small quantities of wheat, but under its garb, huge stockpiles from the eight godowns were being given to him for the sale to private flour mills.
As the scam unfolds, Food and Supply Department officials are flummoxed at how the accused Inspector had created his own “fiefdom” in the area by appointing his own security guards at the godowns and wheat was siphoned off easily for three years — 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 — without any supervision.
As a result, the government has chargesheeted the Deputy Director of Jalandhar division, all District and Food Supply Controllors posted at Amritsar since 2018-19, one Food and Supply Officer and three Inspectors for dereliction of duty. Assistant Food and Supply Officer Cherry Bhatia and Inspector Rajinder Bains have been placed under suspension. Bhatia was posted as AFSO at Jandiala from 2018-2020; in March 2021, Bhatia had reported there was no shortage of wheat in all these godowns. Bains had remained posted at these godowns from April 2020-April 2021.
Maximum purchase only on paper in Amritsar wheat scam
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