This is the outcome of complaint made by a person from the village that beneficiaries under BPL and AAY category have not received rice under BPL and Antyodaya Anna Yojana for the months of December 2009 and for the months of January and February of 2010 which was raised in Jan Sunwai held in Dadenggre on March 10, 2009 and where the Deputy Commissioner, West Garo Hills instructed the SDO(C), Dadenggre to take strict action against the defaulters.
Additional Deputy Commissioner In-charge of Dadenggre (Civil) sub-division informed that the entire supply team of Dadenggre conducted raid in Megonggri to ascertain facts surrounding the complaint. Upon verificationof stock register, issue register, card register and cash memo it was found that the dealer had fraudulently and with mala fide interest not lifted or sold off his assigned quota of 7.7 quintals of BPL rice, 1 quintal of APL rice and 3.85 quintals of AAY rice each for the past three months and allegedly took difference money from the wholesaler.
The BPL and AAY cards of the beneficiaries were found in illegal possession of the dealer. The local people and Price Vigilance Committee also confirmed about the non-distribution of essential commodities at the time of inquiry.
Accordingly , the Additional Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi lodged an FIR in Dadenggre police station against the dealer and the wholesaler .The dealer Bipush Marak has also made a statement on camera about his and the wholesaler’s involvement in the diversion of food grains into the open market.
The statement made by the dealer has been included in the FIR lodged by Additional Deputy Commissioner against the diversion of essential commodities under Section 7 (i) a and & 7(2) of Essential Commodities Act, 1955 under which punishment prescribed is upto one year of imprisonment along with imposition of fine. The FIR also alleged cheating in collusion with the wholesaler to divert PDS rice into the open market and section 420 of Indian Penal Code has also been invoked.
The arrest and FIR are landmark firsts in the history of Dadenggre which has seen a slew of stringent measures like cancellations in the last one year. The Additional Deputy Commissioner stated that taking cognizance of the serious matter, the sub-divisional administration swung into action to nab the culprits two days after reports regarding irregularities surfaced in local newspaper. He reiterated that the sub-divisional Supply team had beenproactive and responsive in checking PDS –related anomalies. “In the past one year, the office of SDO (Civil) Dadenggre has conducted 17 awareness-cum-inspection drives in 12 market areas on weekly markets to create awareness amongst PDS wholesalers, fair price shop dealers, SK oil dealers, NGOs and common public. We have conducted three Jan Sunwai meetings and stringent action has been initiated against defaulters on the basis of complaints of people. In the last one year we have cancelled 16 SK oil dealerships , 6 fairprice shop dealerships and conducted 84 inspections of fair price shops , 80 inspections of S K oil hawkers, 4 of LPG dealers and 152 of wholesale go downs. We are the first sub-division to have a PDS related information booklet and all the PDS related information had been put on the official website. The office is working under tremendous constraints of staff and is constantly under pressure because of too many motivated complaints and counter complaints.”, shared the Additional Deputy Commissioner .
He also informed that a ready-made show-cause format to cut down on procedural delays has been designed and through Jan Sunwai an honest holistic effort has been made to hear out the complaints and difficulties of the local people and redress them. All these, he said have already led to streamlining of Public Distribution System in the sub-division. The initiatives, he said, have been acknowledged by the Government of Meghalaya, by Chief Secretary of Meghalaya, Directorate of Food and Civil Suppplies.
The Deputy Commissioner, Sanjay Goyal, when contacted, also appreciated the efforts of the Sub-Divisional Administration in taking prompt action. He also remarked that the efforts made through Jan Sunwai have started yielding results as now a Common Man is not fearful of complaining at a Public Platform as is confident of bringing out the problems faced by the public. He also observed that incidents such as one reported in the Jan Sunwai are bound to come and what is important is that whether the Govt took any action in regard to that complaint in a time bound manner as promised in Jan Sunwai and thus these complaints should not be generalized to make any opinion on the functioning of the sub-divisional establishment of Dadenggre .