CHANDIGARH: Two days after the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) registered a case against the transport and cartage contractor hired by the state food and civil supplies department, the staff, including officers of the department and the procurement agencies Markfed, Punsup and warehousing corporation, on Thursday announced to go on mass casual leave for an indefinite period as a protest against the vigilance case.
The protest leave by the entire staff means an adverse impact on the upcoming paddy procurement scheduled to start from October 1 and the flagship scheme of “ghar-ghar ration”, which the state government has announced to start from October 2, under which the Aam Aadmi Party government plans to target 1.83 crore beneficiaries offering them wheat flour as an option.
In a memorandum submitted to the secretary food and civil supplies, the senior officers, which includes assistant directors and district food and civil supplies controller sought that the FIRs registered against the officers and officials be withdrawn and terming the inquiries into transportation charges as “baseless”, they demanded that these also be withdrawn as the food grain procured had already been sent to the central pool.
On Tuesday, vigilance bureau in Ludhiana registered a case against a transport and cartage Telu Ram for irregularities in transportation of food grain from mandis to godowns and the local cartage involved during transportation during the tenure of previous Congress party government.
During preliminary investigations by the vigilance, the fact came to light that the transport contractor had shown cars, scooters and motorcycles as used for transporting foodgrains. Earlier a complaint was received by the vigilance bureau against former food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, three officers of the department and transport contractors. So far, the vigilance has not moved against the former minister.
A joint coordination committee constituted by the staff of food department and procurement agencies also demanded that suspended staff and officers of the department and procurement agencies be withdrawn and the tenders invited for labourer and cartage for the upcoming procurement be taken out of the purview of state department and procurement agencies and some agency may be engaged for that.
“The impending situation is serious as the entire procurement work at the mandi level had to be managed by the staff and if government’s scheme of giving wheat flour to national food security act beneficiaries is to be made successful, the staff needs to work hard,” said a department officer on condition of anonymity. He is a signatory on the memorandum given to the secretary food and civil supplies.
“We are working out to bring staff back to office so that work doesn’t suffer,” said secretary food and civil supplies, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh. He hoped that the issues will be settled soon.
