VB Arrests Food & Supply Officer Mansa for causing loss of Rs 25.34 lakh to PUNGRAIN
March 12, 2024 - PatialaPolitics
VB Arrests Food & Supply Officer Mansa for causing loss of Rs 25.34 lakh to PUNGRAIN
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested Baldev Raj Verma, Food and Civil Supplies Officer Mansa, now officiating as District Food and Civil Supplies Controller on charges of causing a loss of Rs 25.34 lakh to the PUNGRAIN, a state procurement agency.
Disclosing this here today an official spokesperson of the state VB said this case has been registered after investigation of two complaints lodged against the above said officer.
Giving details he informed that during the Kharif season 2017-18, the state government had implemented a custom milling policy according to which the approved rice mills, situated under the jurisdiction of procurement centers or grain markets, would have to be linked with these grain markets and have to be used for storage of paddy or shelling of rice. If a claim is made by any rice miller for linkage with any nearby procurement center or grain market, a report in this regard would have to be taken from the field staff and the linked rice mill would have to pay additional transportation charges.
The spokesperson added that during the investigation, it was found from the details received about the storage of paddy in the rice shellers allotted to PUNGRAIN in Mansa that Guru Rice Mill was allotted 4500 MT Paddy but it had stored only 3824 MT. In the early purchase period, the required paddy storage capacity of the local rice mills could not be completed as the paddy from the Joga procurement center was transported to the rice mills situated far away. In this way, the government had suffered a financial loss due to transportation charges.
He further informed that the said Baldev Raj Verma, Officiating District Food and Supply Controller Mansa had facilitated his favorite rice shellers for storing paddy even from distant markets, while the shellers located near to the grain markets have not been allotted paddy according to their capacity.
He added that the Principal Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Punjab, had also chargesheeted the said accused Baldev Raj Verma for causing a loss of Rs 25.34 lakhs to PUNGRAIN agency by following criss-cross movements of Paddy for five shellers. This chargesheet reveals that Baldev Raj Verma had caused a huge financial loss to the Punjab Government by implementing wrong linkages of shellers with local grain markets.
In this regard a case under section 409 and under section 13(1) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the said Baldev Raj Verma at the VB Bathinda Range police station of. Further investigation of this case is ongoing, he added.