The North Goa Collector’s office is yet to decide on disposing 26.5 tonnes of rice lying idle since November 2012, which was seized after Ponda police and civil supplies department busted a black-marketing racket
At a time when poor families struggle to secure three square meals, 26.5 tonnes of rice worth about Rs 3.71 lakh have been lying idle since November 2012.
While some bags are still in the truck which has been detained at the Ponda Police Station, other bags are lying at a godown in Curti.
The North Goa Collector’s office is yet to decide on the disposal of tonnes of rice seized after Ponda police along with the civil supplies department busted a black-marketing racket.
According to reports, a total of 530 bags, each weighing 50 kgs, were seized during the raid. Police had also attached a truck which had most of the rice bags and sealed a godown from where the rice bags were loaded in the truck.
Since the material seized was perishable, the investigating officer DySP Dinraj Govenkar had written to the North Goa collector’s office, requesting to take possession of the material for disposal. According to information, the matter is presently with the additional collector, North Goa.
Based on orders from the North Goa Collector’s office, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) inspected the seized rice bags in March to ascertain the quality of the rice.
“The quality of the rice samples which was verified is standard and the rice is fit for consumption. The report has been sent to the office of the North Goa Collector,” FDA Director Salim Veljee told Herald.
Sources at the Additional North Goa Collector’s office revealed that the proceedings of the matter are underway and an order is likely to be issued within the next few days.
It may be recalled that on November 2, 2102, Ponda police busted a racket involving the black-marketing of rice.
Earlier, the rice was claimed to have been procured from the Self-Help Groups. A grocer was accused of stocking rice at his godown in Curti, which he claimed, had been purchased from the self-help groups. Under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, a certain quantity of rice and wheat was allotted to Self-Help Groups.
Later, the same rice was allegedly sold with a different brand name. When police conducted the raid, labourers were found filling rice from the government supplied jute bags into the plastic bags that had a different brand name printed on it.
Three persons, a truck driver, a truck owner and the godown owner have already been arrested and released this connection.
However, after an inquiry, the Education Department denied reports that the rice was siphoned from the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
When police busted the racket, it led to unexpected consequences for a large number of residents in the area. Hundreds of residents from Tishe-Borim were left stranded as they were unable to purchase essential supplies from the fair price shop.
During the course of their investigation, police learnt that the main accused, Sachin Borkar, was also operating a fair price shop (PDS) at Azordem-Borim. Police suspected that rice from the PDS could have also been used in the black-marketing business. This led Ponda police to attach about 200 ration cards from the Tishem village in Borim for investigations.
The fair price shop run by the accused, Sachin Borkar, was catering to villagers from Tishem-Borim. Since the fair price shop run by the Naik was closed after police busted the rice racket, the ration card holders were asked to procure ration from the fair price located at Paniwada-Borim. This was easier said than done, as the affected people did not have ration cards, as they had been taken away by the police.
In the absence of ration cards and subsidized supplies, the affected people were forced to buy essential supplies at much higher prices from the open market.
The dilemma was finally resolved when DySP Govenkar submitted a letter requesting the Directorate of Civil Supplies to issue duplicate ration cards to the affected people. The duplicate ration cards were finally issued to the 200-odd residents in January this year, bringing much relief to the residents.
