Civil Supplies chief suspends official

Nizamabad: The Telangana State Civil Supplies Commissioner Rajat Kumar placed the Assistant Grain Purchasing Officer (AGPO) Srinivas under suspension on Saturday and directed the district-level officials to conduct an inquiry into the ‘custom milling of rice scandal’.

According to reliable sources, the Civil Supplies Commissioner took action against AGPO Srinivas, on charges that he was favoring some rice millers in paddy procurement violating rules and guidelines. He was found to have wasted time in collecting the required quantities of rice from millers and allotted the paddy to the non-working rice mills.

During the 2014-15 Kharif season, the Civil Supplies Department issued 2,42,278.688 metric tonnes of paddy to the 340 rice mills for ‘custom milling of rice’. The millers collected the paddy from the Civil Supplies department and procured 68 percent - 1,62,787.775 metric tonnes of rice from the department. However, many millers have defaulted and they owe dues to the tune of Rs 29 crore to the Civil Supplies department on 11,757 metric tonnes of rice .

Though the department officials issued notices to defaulter millers they have not responded to the notices. Finally, the District Collector and Joint Collector also held meetings with millers several times and gave warnings. But they failed to respond to the notices, warnings and, remained indifferent.

Consequently, the State Civil Supplies Commissioner and state-level officers constituted a committee under the supervision of Karimnagar District Supplies Officer Chandra Prakash and conducted raids with 12 teams on 38 rice mills in various places in the district.

The teams found out that the AGPO Srinivas connived with the rice millers and allotted the paddy to closed and defunct rice mills; of these rice mills, a few of them were defaulters. Finally, the Commissioner took action against AGPO Srinivas on the basis of a report submitted by the Karimnagar DSO team.

By:Shyam Madavedi