Pilerne forum alleges racket in issuance of ration cards
Accuses Civil Supplies Minister of involvement
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, MAY 25
After petitioning the High Court of Bombay at Goa in the ration card fiasco wherein names of two UK nationals appeared on a ration card belonging to a Nerul resident, the Pilerne Citizens Forum on Tuesday maintained it had discovered through the Right to Information Act the issuance of 92 illegal ration cards in Pilerne-Marra.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Coordinator PCF Prakash Bandodkar alleged there was a big racket from the talathi to minister level for issuing such illegal ration cards and the forum had vowed to expose this.
Bandodkar said no guidelines were followed by the talathi of Pilerne-Marra and the Mamlatdar of Bardez while issuing the 92 ration cards. “To investigate this we made a RTI application dated March 16, 2010 to the Mamlatdar of Bardez. The mamlatdar was able to show he had collected supporting documents for only seven out of the 92 applicants,” he observed.
He further held that while scrutinising the supporting documents for issuing the ration cards interesting facts have emerged. The talathi Ramdas Tukaram Salgaonkar had issued a ration card to one Nitin Mistry residing in Plot No 19 of the Pilerne Industrial Estate, he stated.
Bandodkar said the industrial estate cannot be a place of residence for any authority to issue a ration card. Shockingly, the talathi and the mamlatdar have accepted factory by-laws in issuing Mistry the ration card thus bypassing the laid-down Government procedures and guidelines, he asserted.
He said another shocking thing that came to light was the name of one Jabar Singh Rajpurohit’s had appeared as resident of House No 105 wherein the actual owner of the abode is Vassudev Naroji from Moicavado, Pilerne. Naroji was present at today’s press conference.
Bandodkar said in the declaration form of Rajpurohit the address is mentioned as House No 105, Moicavado, Pilerne, but as per the electoral role (Saligao, Part No 17) the actual resident of the house was Vassudev Naroji. “How was this overlooked by the talathi?” he questioned.
The PCF coordinator said these were just two cases he was bringing to the knowledge of the media but there was much more happening. Ration cards are being issued on false documents because the so-called ‘mantris’ (politicians) were interested in vote-bank politics and there was nothing as such as people-centric politics, he chided.
Going a step further Bandodkar said they smelled a rat and didn’t rule out the involvement of Civil Supplies Minister in this ration card racket. We demand action against the talathi, mamlatdar and those concerned and if the minister doesn’t act we will make him a party to our petition to the HC if no action comes forth in this matter, he warned.
He said the people were fed-up as there was no governance anywhere. Politicians are more interested in vote-bank politics. The CM had recently told a women delegation he wasn’t dependent on their votes. We will not desist from making him also a party to our petition because as head of the State he was responsible for this mess, he stated.
