BPL rice siphoned off in Kalahandi

The Pioneer, Aug 14, 2007

Bhabanipatna: In a major breakthrough, the District Procurement Committee (DPC) of Kalahandi and a special squad from Bhubaneswar jointly raided godowns and rice mills in different blocks and found that BPL rice amounting to 191.84 quintals in Madanpur-Rampur block and 98 quintals in Narla block were siphoned off by storage agents.



Following complaints that poor people are being deprived of rice under the Central schemes, the Collector of Kalahandi formed different squads to raid the godowns in Junagarh, Charbahal, Kesinga, Koksara, Jaipatna, Dharamgarh and Narla blocks. The Civil Supplies Department targeted to purchase 12,12,127 quintals of paddy and 8 lakh quintals of rice from Kharif and Rabi crops. However, it has purchased 13,53, 315.70 quintals of paddy and 5,99,594.51 quintals of rice from the millers, sources said.