Another paddy scam comes to fore
BHUBANESWAR: After the paddy procurement scam in Kendrapara district that embarrassed the State Government for the alleged involvement of a BJD leader, similar irregularities have been detected in Jajpur district.
A family of four of Dilip Kumar Rout of Jajpur district with the help of officials of the Markandapur Service Cooperative Society (SCS) defrauded the society by selling surplus paddy of 917 quintal in excess under the minimum support price scheme. Incidentally, both cases of Kendrapara and Jajpur were reported in the kharif marketing season in 2015.
The Rout family comprising his wife Kabita and two sons Bipak and Tapan sold 1,112 quintal of surplus paddy to the SCS as against their actual marketable surplus of 245.58 quintal as per their land details.
An inquiry into the forgery revealed that the manipulation of data was made at the society level as Kabita is a member of the committee of management of Markandapur CSC. The family were paid over `16.39 lakh by the society through direct benefit transfer.
The irregularity of excess purchase of paddy was detected when the procurement date done through off-line mode did not sync with the online paddy procurement automation system (P-PAS).
An inquiry by the administration revealed that then secretary Naba Kishore Parida and assistant secretary Bikramjit Jena forged the surplus data. The secretary made payment advice against each of the 25 transactions to branch manager of Jajpur brabnch of the Cuttack Central Cooperative Bank.
The Registrar of the Cooperative Society (RCS) has directed the DRCS to initiate criminal proceedings against the two officials of the CSC and four members of the Rout family.
He has further directed immediate dismissal of Kabita from the committee of management and removal of Jena from the service.The RCS has further directed the district collector, Jajpur to fix responsibility of lack of supervision of P-PAS at the level of the civil supply officer.