Kendrapara: Block Development Officers (BDOs) of eight blocks and a municipality lodged complaints against 148 ineligible beneficiaries of NFSA after they were detected by a special inquiry. The BDOs acted at the behest of the district collector. It was alleged that bogus beneficiaries managed to get the ration cards by submitting fake documents.
According to district collector Debaraj Senapati, allegations were made that eligible people failed to get ration cards in the district while several ineligible people have availed of this. He had ordered a special inquiry in all nine blocks and two municipalities in the district.
The special inquiry report revealed that 148 people in eight blocks and a municipality have been lifting subsidised food grains.
In Kaupada GP under Derabish block, 46 bogus ration cards were issued while six bogus beneficiaries in Aul block including three each from Aragala and Patrapur GPs lifted government subsidies. Similarly, nine ration card holders including six bogus beneficiaries under Dera GP and three people under Iswarpur GP under Rajnagar block were identified .
In Pattamundai block, the BDO came across 10 bogus ration card holders, including six bogus cardholders from Chandannagar and four fake ration card holders from Srirampur while in Rajkanika, as many as 13 cardholders were found lifting ration. In Mahakalapada block, 20 fake beneficiaries of Khurusia GP collected subsidised food grains. In Garadapur block, six people were found with ration cards despite their good economic conditions. In Marshaghai block, 32 ineligible ration card holders were identified and in Kendrapara municipality as many as six persons were identified as ineligible ration card holders.
The district collector directed the BDOs of Aul, Derabish, Rajkanika, Pattamundai, Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks to lodge FIRs against bogus beneficiaries.
Derabish BDO lodged FIRs against 46 people of Kaupada panchayat while Aul BDO lodged FIRs against six ration cardholders and Rajnagar BDO lodged FIR Tuesday evening against nine ration cardholders for illegally obtaining ration cards. The BDO of Pattamundai Wednesday lodged an FIR against 10 ration cardholders while Rajkanika BDO lodged FIR against 13 ineligible cardholders and Mahakalapada BDO lodged FIR against 20 persons who were ineligible to get ration cards. Similalry, cases were registered in Kendrapara police station against six ineligible people while Marshaghai BDO lodged FIRs against 32 cardholders while Garadapur BDO lodged FIRs against six.
Most of them against whom FIRs were lodged have concrete houses with more than three rooms in violation of the NFSA norms.
CSO Ramnath Sahu said BDOs have been directed to collect grains from bogus beneficiaries who took grains at subsidized rates. However, Sahu said this is only a tip of the iceberg in the district. PNN
