Gariyaband: In the context of forcible repossession of rice bags from procurement agencies, the Department of Cooperatives comes under watch. Even though 18 days have passed since the dawn of the entire issue, we are still not in the black, with 10,300 metric tons waiting to be compensated. In the district, more than 40 out of 90 grant centres reported 16,000 rice bags that were worth over 2 crore rupees a few days ago.
Upon the moment of coming to light of this issue, the collector, Deepak Agrawal had directed the Cooperative department and the nodal bank to submit the investigation reports regarding it. He had ensured that if there was neither irregularity in the bag nor deficiency in the number of bags, they were to decide and to solve the problem within a week.
However, despite this, the Cooperative Department insists on producing its report wherein various reasonableness of their part is offered to overshadow the mistake of missing bags, but none are acceptable.
The auditor has concluded that the Procuring Bank, as one of the watchdogs in this arrangement, is determined to be inadequately strong. On April 9th, he notified the Consumer Protection Secretary and Food Branch through email and respective officers. They were found not fulfilling their duties responsibly. However, despite requirements by law from all levels, the governmental institutions aimed to achieve zero shortage in all procurement centres, but there were highlighted flaws in terms of attention. Much less thought was given to the arrangements of the procurement centres regarding received food items, physical verification, storage, and security plans. As a result, many centres erected stacks with tarpaulin covers, which led to the deterioration of paddy during rainfall.
The letter stated that the supply cotton procurement unit would stop the release of the supply exceeding 2 crores by actualising a charge of 5 Rs penalty per quintal measures monitored by Markfed. Along with sending the letter, District Food Officer Sudhir Guru brought to light the fact that the supply of 48.61 lakh metric tons of rice was over. Therefore, it was mandatory to put the letter to stop the payments.
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