THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In its reply to the Right to Information (RTI) query from a Venjaramoodu native, the social justice department has disclosed that 9,973.50 kg of dates provided by the UAE consulate here have been distributed in institutions under it. According to the department, 39, 894 people had been provided dates, 250 gms for each one of them.
The distribution had been undertaken at the behest of then IT secretary M Sivasankar, since then suspended from service. Thrissur with 1,257.25 kg of dates topped the list of districts which had got the maximum share while Pathanamthitta with a paltry 240kg received the least.
Social Justice director T V Anupama had earlier made a similar deposition before the customs. It should be recalled that the customs had revealed that it was on basis of a directive from Sivasankar that the social justice department had provided dates to the orphanages across the state which originally belonged to the UAE Consulate. This had led the customs officials to summon Sivasankar for questioning.
Currently the Central agencies are looking into whether gold had been smuggled under the guise of dates had been imported from the UAE in 2017. Also, the customs department had been probing whether Swapna Suresh, key accused in the gold smuggling case, along with her accomplices had resorted to protocol violation under the guise of dates import.