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New Delhi/Chandigarh/Punjab: The Rajya Sabha member and the former Punjab Congress president Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today demanded CBI probe into what he described as massive food scam in the state involving rampant misappropriation, pilferage and diversion of food grains. He alleged the second part of this unprecedented running into thousands of crores was the diversion of cash credit limit advanced by the banks on the recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India by the Parkash Singh Badal government over the years.
Taking up this important issue that has rocked the state during zero hour in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Bajwa pointed out that the fraud committed on this country by the Badal government was exposed by the banks which earlier refused to advance cash credit limit to the state government for the procurement of wheat. The total amount that has been detected to be misappropriated is more than Rs 20,000 crore. He said the Badal government had tried to take refuge in the argument that it was due to mismatch between the accounts of the state government and the central agencies.
He said this rampant corruption and pilferage had been pointed out even by the CAG in various reports. One of the reports referred to 45 cases involving misappropriation of rice valued at Rs. 104.34 crores but no FIR was registered by the Punjab Government. This was indicative of pervasive collusion and corruption in the state government.
Mr Bajwa said the CAG report No. 5 of 2014 on Public Sector Undertakings had recorded that on an audit of 5 selected districts in Punjab detected 14 cases of misappropriation of 0.23 Lakh MT of rice valued at Rs. 35.40 crores. Even in this case, no FIR was lodged reinforcing the collusion between the governmental authorities and the food mafia that is thriving under the patronage of the Badal Government.
Further, the CAG Report No. 2 of 2015 on Public Sector Undertakings records that the gap between the Punjab Government’s Cash Credit Limit and the stock of food grains has widened from Rs. 14,338.64 crores in the year to 2012-13 to Rs. 21,562.82 crores in the year 2014-15. The State Bank of India observing this had asked the Punjab Government to deposit the outstanding amount of Rs. 20,920.36 crores into the food cash credit loan account to regularize the account lest it would risk slipping into the non-performing asset category and the Punjab Government would be in default. The CAG found that the reason for this alarming situation in this food basket of the country was because of massive misappropriation of food grains and diversion of funds amongst others.
He said similarly, the CAG report No. 31 of 2015 on Procurement and Milling of Paddy for the Central Pool had pointed out that out of 3319 registration numbers of vehicles scrutinized by the Audit, 3232 vehicles which approximately constitutes 97.35 %, did not match with the computerized data of the transport authority. Out of the remainder it was found that vehicles were buses, cars, bikes and tankers. This shows how fake transportation bills were submitted and redeemed without transportation of the food grains to their respective locations/godowns. The CAG recorded that the Government of Punjab had not been able to explain how vehicles like motorcycles, cars were used for transportation of tons of paddy/rice. This was yet another glaring example of misappropriation of government funds but despite that, there has been no action against the offending transporters.
He demanded the centre to immediately mark a CBI inquiry into this massive food scam in Punjab involving rampant misappropriation, pilferage and diversion of food grains and further into the diversion of central funds by the state Government that were meant for procurement purposes.
