PANJIM: As the details of the Crime Branch raids and arrests open steadily, the nexus between Fair Price Shops (FPS), ration cardholders, and grain smugglers have come to light. Ration cardholders are selling off their allocated foodgrains.
The Crime Branch raided private warehouses and found grains worth lakhs of rupees that were being attempted to be smuggled to Karnataka. Upon inquiry, they were told that the grains were from the Civil Supplies warehouses in Ponda taluka. There were reportedly three complaints of smuggling.
The Civil Supplies Department has claimed that foodgrains were not smuggled from their warehouses and has blamed the FPS operators. This has raised a big question as to how the accused got their hands on these grains which were meant for FPS for distribution to ration cardholders.
Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who runs five fair-price shops in his constituency said, “People are indeed selling their grains to private persons at inflated rates and it is a known fact. This won’t stop until the entire PDS is overhauled and relooked into to bring improvements.”
“Even the Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cardholders have not been identified properly and that’s the reason for an issue. I run fair price shops at Manora, Housing Board, and Curtorim and I say that there is a need to revisit the system,” he added.
GOACAN, the NGO that works for consumer rights and awareness also endorsed the fact that foodgrains are being sold by ration cardholders to the FPS owners.
