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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | UP foodgrain scam may require 5,000 FIRs by Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui

UP foodgrain scam may require 5,000 FIRs by Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui

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published Published on Dec 8, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 8, 2010

It spreads across five countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Bhutan, apart from a total of 34 of the 71 districts in Uttar Pradesh. It involves over 450 Class-I government officials and another 800 middle and lower rung subordinates apart from some 10,000 private entities and may require 5,000 FIRs to cover the scam in totality. 

The foodgrain scam of Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a strong contender for the dubious title of "the mother of all scams" unearthed in India, ever. If not the amount of money involved, estimated to be around Rs 35,000 crore as of now, but the petitioner sees it to be over Rs 2 lakh crore, at least by the headcount involved. 

This probably explains why the high court also directed the CBI to seek help from the enforcement directorate (ED) as well to pin the accused who may be scattered across the country and abroad. A spokesperson of the ED on Tuesday confirmed that the department has been roped in to participate in the probe. 

If you think the figures are exaggerated, then sample this: the food cell of Uttar Pradesh Police while probing the anomalies related with the foodgrain scam in Sitapur alone, lodged as many as 63 FIRs against over 6,000 accused when the case was transferred to the special investigation team ( SIT) on the orders of chief minister Mayawati on August 11, 2007. This included 21 government officials of the post of sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs), district supply officers (DSOs) and the likes. 

On November 3, 2008, when the CBI took up the nine FIRs lodged in Ballia and Lakhimpur Kheri, it found a total of 175 persons listed as accused including 18 officers of the state civil services cadre. The net worth of foodgrain siphoned off between 2001 and 2005 in Gonda alone was estimated to be over Rs 457 crore. The scam has been already detected in at least 34 districts and another twenty were in focus. 

The scam comprised sale of foodgrain meant for the public distribution system and other special schemes for those below poverty line (BPL) — Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (now integrated with NERGS), Antyodaya Yojana and Mid-day Meal Scheme — being sold off to private entities while in the government records, the stocks were shown as "distributed" among the target populace. The scam also included procurement of the same wheat in the name of stocks under the special schemes and again selling it off in the black market to be sold even abroad. 

The entire scandal was so blatantly executed that the numbers of trucks shown to have picked up the stocks from railway dumps to move them to the state food corporation (SFC) godowns were found to be those of scooters and motorcycles. Though the scam came to light in 2005 itself, those behind the crime were so confident of their connections that they did not stop draining the state exchequer even thereafter. 

What brings out this brazenness the best is the mysterious disappearance of 17 trucks of wheat weighing around 3,200 quintals in all while being transported from the SFC godown in Shahjahanpur to its second store in Jammaur area of the same district on July 07, 2006. Later a probe by the then sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) revealed that out of the 18 trucks of wheat transported, only one reached the second store while the rest went missing. Similar pilferage was detected in Rae Bareli and Balrampur districts as well. 

It was this scam that led to the collapse of the public distribution system in as many as 23 districts of the state by 2005 as not a single grain of wheat was lifted from Food Corporation of India godowns of these districts for distribution under the BPL and Antyodya schemes for December 2004. 

The railways in Uttar Pradesh too pointed towards some glaring anomalies in transportation of grain to Bangladesh during 2004-2005 after it came across improper export indents and cancelled bookings for a total of 135 rail rakes to transport wheat to Bangladesh. 

Records available with the railways show that a total of 122 rail rakes were booked from Sultanpur and 16 from Akbarpur railway station by a Kolkata-based company for export of foodgrain to Bangladesh. Out of the 122 rakes booked from Sultanpur railway station, four piled high with foodgrain had already reached its destination, Darshna in Bangladesh and the rest were to follow when the railway authorities detected use of improper export indents in registration of rail rakes. 

These anomalies comprised unsigned forwarding notes, demand being registered for "self" and the likes. Each rake comprises 40 wagons with each wagon having a carrying capacity of 220 tonnes of foodgrain. 

"Things are so bad that the state government will require a separate prison or two to house the foodgrain scandal accused if the investigators decided to carry out all the arrests," said a senior officer, associated with the investigations into the case, while talking to TOI on Tuesday.


The Times of India, 9 December, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UP-foodgrain-scam-may-require-5000-FIRs/articleshow/7068731.cms


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