A scam of diverting rice supplied through Public Distribution System with the nexus of rice millers, ration shop dealers and businessmen is denting the Telangana State exchequer to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees.
Taking advantage of the lacunae in PDS, the racketeers are minting money and ‘silencing’ the officials concerned by greasing their palms. Sources said that even Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao got wind of the sabotaging of PDS — meant for the poorest of the poor.
With a few days left for the Budget session to being in the Assembly, Mr. Rao reportedly directed the police of Hyderabad and Cyberabad to crack a whip on all the persons connected to the scam. “There is no single person or group responsible for this scam. It is more localised,” said a police officer.
Some employees of Civil Supplies Department, ration shop dealers and millers had formed into organised gangs to divert the rice being supplied through PDS. “ Not all beneficiaries of the PDS are using the Rs. 2 kilo rice. Those who purchase this rice are persuaded by ration shop dealers to sell the rice back to them for Rs. 6 or more a kilo,” an investigator explained.
This rice is sold by ration shop dealers to businessmen who supply the same to poultry farms or roadside eateries for Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 a kilo. More organised modus operandi adopted by the agents, making a mockery of the PDS, is buying back the rice from beneficiaries by offering Rs. 6-a-kg.
By fudging records, the unclaimed rice bags are also purchased. Millers buy this rice and supply it to the FCI for higher price. The State government purchases this rice for nearly Rs. 20 a kilo for supplying to the poor under PDS for Rs. 2 a kilo.
“The scam is so organised that the police, after raiding a mandal-level stock point in the city, found the words ‘MG road eatery, Tiffin centre’ written on PDS rice bags. Nothing can be more glaring than this,” an investigator said. Unable to break the nexus of dealers and millers, some senior police officials even suggested installation of cameras at ration shops, stock points and godowns to check the scam.
