Ration of 110 crores distributed on paper in MP: Revealed in CAG report, truck told bike and car; Government bid – report is not the final truth

A big scam has come to the fore in the take home ration and free food scheme in Madhya Pradesh. This disclosure has been made in the report of CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General). The CAG has found in the sample investigation in 8 districts that during the year 2018-21, ration of Rs 110.83 crore was distributed on paper to more than the registered children in 48 Anganwadis of 8 districts. Not only this, in these districts, about 97 thousand metric tonnes of nutritional food was told in stock, while about 87 thousand metric tonnes of nutritional food was told to be distributed i.e. about 10 thousand metric tonnes of food was missing. Its price is around 62 crores.

In the state, the Women and Child Development Department distributes take home ration to children of 3 years of age, pregnant and out of school girls from 11 to 14 years under supplementary nutritional diet. According to the report, there has been massive rigging in the identification of beneficiaries, control of production, transportation distribution and quality of take-home rations. The auditor general has asked the chief secretary of the state government to get an independent agency probed into the alleged scam. Along with this, the responsibility of the officers has been asked to be fixed.

Government said – this report is not the final truth
On the report, government spokesperson Narottam Mishra said that the CAG report is not final. It is their opinion. After this, the state government scrutinizes the audit report, so it is not right to call it the final conclusion. When this report comes, there is a committee of accounts section, it takes the final decision in it.

Kamal Nath tweeted

Corruption and scams are common in everything: Kamal Nath

Attacking the government, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath said that now the nutrition scam has come to the fore in the Shivraj government. Corruption and scam are common in every scheme, in every work under the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. Where the scam has happened, that department is with the Chief Minister, fraud has been done in the name of take home ration. On one hand, Madhya Pradesh has topped the country in malnutrition since years. On the other hand, this kind of fraud in the name of nutritional food is telling the thinking and intentions of this government. Action should be taken against the culprits after investigating this scam.

238 crore paid to substandard supply firms
The state government has also got the quality of nutritional food checked by independent labs. The report says that various firms of the state have distributed about 40 thousand metric tonnes of nutritional food of substandard quality. In lieu of this, the officers also paid about Rs 238 crore. But no action was taken against the firms supplying poor quality nutritional food. Not only this, no inquiry was made in this regard from the responsible officers.

Sample investigation in 8 districts
The CAG had conducted sample testing in Anganwadis of Dhar, Mandla, Jhabua, Rewa, Sagar, Satna, Mandla and Shivpuri districts. It was found that out of 97 thousand metric tonnes in nutritional food stock, 87 thousand metric tonnes were distributed. That is, 10 thousand tons were missing. Its price is around 62 crores. Similarly, transportation of ration worth 6.94 crore from 6 firms has been found to be done by bike, auto and tanker. There is a suspicion of fake supply of 821.8 tonnes of ration worth 4.95 crores.

The scam caught like this
In 2018-19, the School Education Department had estimated the number of girls out of school to be 9 thousand, but the Women and Child Development Department assumed 36.08 lakh. In fact, the Women and Child Development Department had to conduct a baseline survey of the number of out-of-school girls. Ration was to be distributed on the basis of this, but this survey was not done. Ignoring the number of 9 thousand children of the School Education Department, more than 36 lakh numbers of the survey were assumed.

There is no stock register in two development blocks
In two development blocks of Shivpuri district, Khaniyadhana and Kolaras, the payment of nutritional food worth Rs 5 crore was approved within just eight months. They didn’t even have a stock register. Due to this, no entry or panchnama has been found for the movement of nutritional food. Not only this, without due process the officials have even made the full payment to the firms.

58 crore fake production
According to the report, fake production of 58 crores was done. This disturbance has been seen in Dhar, Mandla, Rewa Sagar and Shivpuri. Here even after the stock of take home ration was not available on the date of issue of challan, the supply of 822 metric tonnes of ration was told. Meaning what was not there was also distributed.

Government telling clerical mistake
The vehicles which are referred to as trucks for the carriage of goods are the numbers of bikes and autos. The government is blaming the clerical error for this. MP Agro’s investigation found that MP GF 9139 was listed as MP-04 and MP 09 HG 9555 as 9559. At the same time, on substandard ration, the government has said that it was sent to the laboratory, 15% or Rs 38 crore has been deducted in the payment after finding fault in the test.