PONDA/PANJIM: Civil Supplies Minister Ravi Naik rejected the claims of Plastic rice supplied from fair price shops saying just because the news appeared on newspaper don’t mean that there is plastic rice supplied by fair price shops.
When asked about news of plastic rice, he even asked back: “do we eat plastic rice and where is this plastic rice? However, we will conduct inquiry into complains, if any.”
The minister however said, “We will suspend and send home the concerned officials to home, in case it is found that poor quality rice is being supplied without proper inspection.”
He said that the objective of the government is to supply good quality rice and Civil Supply Inspectors must go out and check the quality and then supply it. They should go to godowns and inspect rice.
“We will probe any complaint regarding inferior quality of rice or infested with maggots and take action against concerned Civil Supply Inspector. In case they are found guilty, we will suspend them. He said it is their responsibility to inspect the rice and supply to people,” Naik said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has whittled the maggot filled rice found in multiple fair price shops across south Goa as “quality issues” affecting one or two sacks.
He also sarcastically dismissed allegations of plastic found in rice by saying “production and supply of plastic rice is expensive.”
“There may be one or two sacks out of the thousands of rice sacks that could have some quality issues but that did not mean all the rice supplied was bad,” Sawant said.
