A day after the chief minister’s flying squad detected a paddy procurement scam of around 75,095 quintals involving three rice millers, the police registered FIRs against four rice millers and the secretary of the Jundla grain market has been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been ordered in the case.
Talking to HT, the chief administrator of HSAMB, Sujan Singh said Jundla mandi secretary Pawan Chopra has been suspended. He said directions have been issued to lodge an FIR against the erring firm and enquire into the role of other officials of the Market Committee, Jundla, as per duty roaster.
As per information, Chopra was suspended following the scam in which around 70,000 quintals of paddy were found missing from the godowns of three rice mills which were deputed for the procurement of parmal paddy for government agencies.
The CM’s flying squad had conducted raids at several rice mills on Tuesday and the officials also inspected the records of the Jhundla grain market of Karnal and they found a mismatch of thousands of quintals in the paddy stock at the rice mills and the actual paddy procured by them for government procurement agencies. Moreover, following the raid by the CM flying squad, HSAMB officials also swung into action and during the physical verification, officials found 13,095 quintals of paddy less than the actual procurement made by the Jundla-based Saraswati Agro Foods. The officials said that directions have been issued to take action against the owners of the rice mill.
On Tuesday, DSP Ajit Singh of the CM flying squad said that some irregularities have been detected in the stock of three rice mills. The investigation officers also suspected the involvement of officials associated with the procurement operations and said the investigation is going on and a detailed report will be revealed soon.
As per the Karnal SP, the FIR has been registered under Sections 409, 420, 467, 471, 468 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code against four rice millers, KM Food, Hansraj Food, Budh Ram Foods and Anand Foods of Karnal.
