RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court has stayed the tender process on a petition alleging extensive irregularities in the supply of jaggery under the public distribution system (PDS) for the poor malnourished population in tribal Bastar.
A division bench comprising of Chief Justice in-charge Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Parth Prateem Sahu has issued a notice to the Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation to respond after staying the tender process.
“There are gross irregularities in the tender process which were floated on 10 April this year. The firm that declares supplying of sugar in its affidavit at higher price and didn’t even qualify on various other requisite parameters has been cited to be qualified. This is ridiculous as the firm that actually qualifies has been unlawfully rejected. Such wrongdoing will further incur additional loss of over Rs 17 crore to the state”, said Satish Gupta, the counsel for the petitioner Ambey industries.
The scheduled date of the next hearing in the case has been fixed on 29 June.
To counter the malnourishment among the tribal population in the Bastar zone, south Chhattisgarh, the state government has launched the ‘Madhur Gud Yojana’, in which two kg jaggery per family is distributed through the PDS to 6.98 lakh ration card holders every month. Besides jaggery, the Bastar population also gets rice, gram, salt and pulses.