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Massive irregularities surface in wheat procurement in M.P.

BHOPAL: Official reports, including one sent to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat by the Hoshangabad District Collector on April 4, reveal massive corruption and mismanagement of the wheat procurement process in Madhya Pradesh.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Akhand Pratap Singh’s recent initiative of handing over the public distribution system (PDS) outlets to rural panchayats in order to “free the system from the clutches of black-marketeers and middlemen” has also come in for sharp criticism within the ruling party.

The Minister told The Hindu that even sub-standard red wheat that was being sold at the subsidised rate of Rs.8.50 per kg through the PDS outlets was being siphoned away for sale in the open market. Now when the Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojna was being implemented in the State for distributing foodgrains at highly subsidised rates, it would be more profitable for the black-marketeers to further exploit the system, he pointed out. The Chief Minister also noticed large-scale irregularities during a surprise inspection of the Krishi Upaj Mandi in Itarsi on April 18. He directed the district Collector to submit a report about procurement of wheat at the official support price. The Collector, G. P. Tiwari, confirmed irregularities and pointed out in his report that of the 499,991 quintal of wheat procured by the Itarsi Mandi between March 1 and April 17 this year, only 187,620 quintals had been purchased at support price, while 2,225,380 quintal of wheat was purchased below procurement price and the bonus of Rs.100 above the procurement price, announced by the State Government, was paid to procure only 86,991 quintal of wheat. There were four government agencies involved in the procurement process: the State Civil Supplies Corporation, the Food Corporation of India, the Marketing Federation and NAFED.

The Collector pointed out in his report that it had been established that the wheat was wrongly declared as unfit for procurement by official agencies. The same pattern was noticed in Bankhedi, Piparia, Sohagpur and Semriharchand mandis, according to the Collector. He also highlighted the need for a strict vigil to ensure that the wheat purchased from farmers by traders was not brought back to the mandi to be sold at the official procurement price.

The Collector also placed on record that there was a shortage of storage space in the mandi as railway rakes were not available between April 10 and 16 to transport wheat.

Earlier, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies had raised the issue of irregularities in management of wheat procurement. Responding to allegations of large-scale irregularities as well as complaints that farmers were neither getting support price nor immediate payment for the purchase of their wheat, he had asked the State Secretary/Commissioner Food and Civil Supplies to furnish information regarding wheat procurement and also directed him on April 15, three days before the Chief Minister’s surprise visit to Itarsi to resolve various issues linked with wheat procurement, its storage and transportation.

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Massive irregularities surface in wheat procurement in M.P.

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