Jajpur: The Managing Director of Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (OSCSC) Wednesday sought an explanation from the district civil supplies officer (CSO) Kushal Majhi for waiving security deposit to the tune of Rs 7.26 crore to the rice millers.
The CSO had been in trouble for waiving Rs 6 crore to six rice mills during 2015-16 fiscal.
OSCSC MD Niranjan Nayak in his letter indicated the violation of norms saying as per their milling capacity the millers have paid Rs 7.26 cr less towards security deposit. Besides, five custom millers who had collected paddy during last procurement season, have not delivered a single grain of rice, Nayak marked in the letter and asked CSO Majhi to respond on these issues within a week.
On the other hand, it was alleged that violation of norms by the CSO is a regular affair since the action of OSCSC is limited to serving of show cause notices and framing charges.
According to reports, the corporation failed to reimburse rice worth Rs 4 crore from Savitri Industries, a rice mill of the district due to the indifferent attitude of supply officials. The mill owner cleverly shifted the paddy consignment to another rice mill owned by him in Keonjhar district before the mill was confiscated by a bank, it was learnt.
It may be noted that Savitri Industries was exempted from paying security deposits of Rs 3.34 cr during 2015-16 fiscal. The corporation framed charges against CSO Majhi, two other officers Prahlad Chandra Sethy and Biswajit Mishra over the irregularities but no concrete action was taken against them.
The collection of paddy has been extremely discouraging this fiscal due to undue favour shown to rice millers and a step-motherly attitude towards the farmers, alleged paddy growers.
OSCSC has drawn flak from several quarters over inordinate delay in collection of paddy and waiver of security deposits to millers.
When contacted, CSO Majhi said measures have been taken to accelerate paddy collection and he would respond to the departmental letter. PNN
