Banta: With increased paddy procurement by the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation in Bhadrak district, some irregularities were suspected in its own godown at Banta.
The irregularities are surfacing gradually at the centre which was used by the corporation as rice receiving centre with a storage capacity of 4.10 lakh tonne six months back.
On the charge of misappropriating 1,400 bags of rice, the depot was raided by a special squad and state team in December.
Notably, the departmental officials and people in charge of the rice depot were suspended at that time as a disciplinary measure. Since then, this rice depot was locked and rice is being supplied to Banta block from the Dhamnagar depot.
Reacting to the locking of rice depot, the departmental officials have said that the state government has already ordered the closure of all small depots. However, the Banta rice depot has not yet been officially closed.
It is learnt from some departmental sources that there are gross irregularities in the Banta rice depot. As of now, the department is regularising the rice transactions carried out within this period. Although, the Banta rice depot charge was given to another staff after the raid, the suspended staff has not yet handed over the charge to him. As a result, the new in-charge of the rice depot has reported this matter to the district collector in writing.
Uncertainty looms over the issue of closure of the rice depot, unless and until zero mismatching report of the stock is obtained. Moreover, it is said there are gross irregularities in the documentation of transactions over the past 3-4 years.
Probably, this is an apparent reason why the suspended staff of the depot is reluctant to hand over the charge to the new staff. It is also known that despite the lockup of rice depot from outside, issues of stocks, closure of stocks and transaction adjustments are going on in closed doors.
Departmental officials are alleged to have been doing rigorous exercise to cover up the shortage of 1,400 bags of rice six months back. It is also alleged that the local administration is providing cloak to this case of irregularity.
However, the views of district supply officer R. Ali Khan over this issue could not be obtained. District Collector Gyanaranjan Das said, “We are busy with post-election responsibilities and necessary steps will be taken after the counting of votes.”
PNN