MARGAO: Civil Supplies Minister Ravi Naik may have denied the supply of maggot-filled rice under the public distribution system (PDS), stating that the photos in O Heraldo published in the August 1 edition as “old” but his department officials during a ‘surprise visit’ to check the stock at a few fair price shops in Salcete taluka on Wednesday found several bags infested.
O Heraldo’s reportage on the issue prompted the Civil Supplies officials to pay a ‘surprise visit’ to check the stock at the fair price shops across Salcete on Wednesday.
But shockingly, instead of accepting the obvious, the department officials added a new twist by blaming the fair price shop owners for distributing maggot-filled rice to ration cardholders.
The officials blamed a few FPS owners for distributing the infested rice to cardholders.
They said this was done despite instructions issued a month ago but admitted they had received complaints from fair price shop owners of receiving maggot-infested rice in June. An official said that all the stock supplied from Cortalim godown for July and now in August is clean and of good quality.
The Civil Supplies Department had replaced nearly 1,131 bags infested with maggots at nearly 15 fair price shops in June, and this is proof that Goans continued to receive maggot-filled rice this month despite people expressing health concerns on the issue.
On Wednesday, several fair price shop owners were shocked to see the Civil Supplies team checking the stock at their premises.
An official said that the Civil Supplies team found several bags of maggot-filled rice in a few of the shops on Wednesday during the check.
The fair price shops were instructed not to distribute the infested rice to the people but to replace the same.
“Most replaced their stock with new ones; however a few continued distributing the infested rice along with new stock. We will report the matter to the department,” said the official.
At the same time, fair-price shop owners thanked O Heraldo for highlighting the issue on a regular basis.
Speaking to O Heraldo, on the condition of anonymity, a fair price shop owner said that the check conducted by the department following O Heraldo’s extensive reportage will be an eye-wash.
What really hurts is that the department is not accepting its mistake of not supplying clean rice. It is not feasible for the fair price shop owners to replace the stock on regular occasions as it involves labour and transport charges, which are an extra burden, claimed the fair price shop owner.
