Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool   

Underweight in ration for flood victims

KURNOOL: The verification by vigilance officials brought to light the issue of underweight in the free ration being distributed to the flood victims by the government. The government planned ration for 2.10 lakh families, with each kit comprising 20 kg rice, 2 kg dal, 2 kg sugar and 50 gram tea.

The administration engaged over 100 workers to prepare the kits at the civil supplies godowns behind the Collectorate. The Vigilance team led by Regional Vigilance Officer S.A.V. Prasada Rao, which crosschecked the weight of packets on Monday, found around 20 per cent shortage.

A few days ago, CPI(M) district secretary T. Shadrak and others in different complaints represented to the district Collector to ensure proper weights saying it would be unfair to cheat flood victims with underweight kits. The rice was less by 2 to 3 kg for every 20 kg, sugar and dal by 200 grams for every 2 kg. If the underweight persisted with all 2.10 lakh kits, the malpractice would involve an amount of Rs. 1 crore.

Meanwhile, the Civil Supplies officials and those supervising the packing explained that they were using only bowl type instruments to measure the grain and not the balances to save time. Bowls would always tend to have some variation when cross checked with balances.

Mr. Prasada Rao said there would be no case if the entire stock given to them at the time of packing was accounted for. They would proceed only when the excess grain was shifted to black market and illegally sold. The Vigilance Officials planned to wait until the entire stock was verified taking into account the total stock released for packing.

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