BHUBANESWAR: The State Government, on Saturday, suspended two officers of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department for showing undue favour to a rice mill owner of Jharsuguda district. The two officers, who have been suspended are Jharsuguda district Civil Supplies Officer (CSO) PDM Khosla and Assistant Civil Supplies Officer (ACSO) SK Guru.
The two officers were found neglecting their duties by allegedly showing undue favour to Bajrangbali Race Mill. Though the rice mill owner has failed to deliver 53,984.67 quintals of custom milled rice (CMR) to the State Government for supply under public distribution system (PDS) during 2016-17 kharif marketing season, the two officers did not take any action against the miller to recover the rice.
Irregularities in the supply of CMR by the rice mill owner has resulted a loss of about `8.2 crore to the Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (OSCSC). The State-run corporation conducted a special audit into the accounts of Bajrangbali Rice Mill and an audit revealed alleged connivance of the two officers with the mill owner, who had earlier defrauded the corporation by submitting a fake bank guarantee for `1.1 crore.
On the basis of the audit report, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister SN Patro recommended suspension of the two officers to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The Minister has directed the department to refer the case to economic offences wing of the State police.