Relief rice finds its way into private godowns

VISAKHAPATNAM: The dishonest love a good cyclone. That is what is happening in Visakhapatnam when it comes to distribution of rice to the victims of cyclone Hudhud. Many dealers are resorting to ingenious ways to spirit away the rice procured by the government or donated by philanthropists for distribution to the victims.

Though the Vigilance and Enforcement Department officials are working overtime, the mischief by the fair price shop dealers continues to persist.

As many as 12 special teams are covering nearly 24 of the 43 mandals in the district every day, at some place or the other, and yet FP dealers are having the last laugh.

As recently as Saturday, the vigilance and enforcement officials intercepted a truck that was quietly diverting rice delivered to them by the government for distribution to the cyclone victims.

'Twenty tonnes of rice in 290 bags was released to FP dealers. They tried to ship the entire rice to a godown at Dallivanipalem in Gajuwaka. We have caught them redhanded,' regional vigilance and enforcement officer V Suresh Babu said.

When the vigilance and enforcement officials inspected the dealer's shop, they found 7 tonnes of rice in excess with them while the records showed that the the stock has been distributed. 'This is a clear case of manipulation of records to divert rice to godowns and sell it later in the open market,' Suresh Babu stated.

Besides the enforcement officials, the local police too are keeping a vigil on the movement of essential commodities. The Two Town police seized a truck while it was diverting 150 bags of rice into a godown. Upon inspecting the godown, the police found another 85 bags of rice already stocked there.

Suresh Babu says that the government has given directions to take stringent action against dealers using unfair practices to cheat ration victims.

In many shops, the balances are faulty, much to the benefit of the dealers who are saving 2 to 3 kg on every 25 kg of rice dispensed to the ration card holders.

'We are weighing the rice distributed to the victims after they come out of the ration shop. If there is a discrepancy, we are weighing the same again before the dealer and are taking action by booking cases under the Essential Services Act. Under this Act, a dealer could be sent to jail also,' Babu said.

He said dealers realised that the administration is very serious about fraudulent measurements.

'I do not say all the dealers are bad. Only some are. After we have begun taking action against some of them, the others are afraid of cheating,' he said, adding: 'Till Oct 18, there was a deluge of complaints of fair price shop dealers cheating ration card holders. The number used to go up to 100 but now the number has come down to about 10 to 12 per day.'