Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday demanded CBI inquiry into supply of substandard rice to fair price shops reportedly State-wide.
Taking to Twitter, Mr. Nath said, “The rice scam is not limited to Balaghat and Mandla districts. This stretches to several districts and is connected to the higher-ups.”
He asked the government to expand the scope of the inquiry beyond the two districts, despite the State government claiming it was already inspecting stocks State-wide and had even withheld stocks pending inquiry.
“By restricting the inquiry to the two districts, there is an attempt to suppress the scam,” alleged Mr. Nath.
Mr. Nath’s statements came two days after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who directed the economic offences wing to investigate the matter in the two districts, had said the previous Congress government took no action while substandard rice was reportedly procured from millers in Balaghat district in February.
From November 2019 to January this year, 26.21 lakh metric tonnes paddy was procured. Until August, 17.4 lakh metric tonnes had been supplied to millers, who after custom milling 16.51 lakh metric tonnes supplied 11.06 lakh metric tonnes to the State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited. After the milling process, 15 quality controllers were put on the job and found 111 of the 1,318 stocks inspected to be not of prescribed quality, the Chief Minister’s Office said.
