KOLLAM: The VACB carried out another inspection at the office of the Cashew Corporation (KSCDC) after complaints that the recently resigned chairman R Chandrasekahran had bought low quality cashew using most of the Rs 30 crore grant it received from the government. The High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the corruption allegations against the management last week.
The vigilance team, headed by circle inspector M M Jose, inspected the files regarding the tenders floated for buying raw nuts from the controversial agency JMJ Traders. The copies of the files were taken from the office of the commercial manager for inquiry.
The petitioner Kadakampally Manoj had complained that out of the Rs 30 crore it received, the Corporation had spent Rs 24.40 crore for buying raw nuts of inferior quality from JMJ Traders, who was the lone bidder. The local nuts were purchased at a high rate of Rs 117.01 a kilo. According to Manoj’s complaint, the workers protested when they found the nuts were of low quality.
The outturn was as low as 14-17 kg for a sack (80 kg) of cashew.