Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection S. Gopalakrishnan has asked the staff manning the public distribution system outlets not to hold back commodities by deferring supplies and asking consumers to come to the shop on another day even for the commodities that are available in the shop.
The Commissioner was addressing officials at a review meeting at the Collectorate here on Monday, after conducting a surprise visit to many places in rural Coimbatore to check instances of smuggling of PDS supplies and the functioning of civil supplies officials and staff. He asked the staff in part-time PDS shops to properly display the time when the shops would be open for the benefit of consumers.
Additional Director General of Police for Civil Supplies CID K. Radhakrishnan and Registrar of Co-operative Societies Jayashree Muralidharan were also present during the surprise visits and during the review meeting.
Earlier in the day, they visited check posts at Walayar, Velanthavalam and Meenakshipuram – bordering Coimbatore and Kerala.
They also inspected the Civil Supplies CID office at Pollachi and asked the officials to take necessary staff to auction and dispose of the nearly 1,000 vehicles that were seized from smugglers during various raids. District Revenue Officer (DRO) T. Christhuraj and officials from Civil Supplies Corporation were also present at the meeting.
According to Civil Supply CID officials, their units in Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur Districts from May 2011 have registered as many as 6,021 cases against persons smuggling commodities that is to be sold under the public distribution system.
They seized smuggled commodities worth Rs. 2.84 crore in these three districts.
It includes 18.31 lakh kilograms rice, 45,544 litres kerosene, 1,819 palm oil packets, 28,410 kg wheat, 13,986 kg dhal and 3,075 gas cylinders.
Civil Supplies CID personnel have also seized a total of 2,060 vehicles worth Rs. 9.8 crore that were allegedly used by the miscreants for smuggling the commodities during this period.
Vehicles
The seized vehicles include 415 four-wheelers and heavy vehicles, 54 three-wheelers and 1,591 two-wheelers.
The total value of the recovered smuggled commodities and the vehicles used for smuggling is estimated at Rs. 12.65 crore. In the said four years and five months, the persons involved in 176 cases have been convicted.
