Wheat scam: Punjab food commission seeks report, asks dept to take action

The commission has sought a detailed report from the food and civil supplies department on the missing wheat within a fortnight

Chandigarh

Wheat scam: Punjab food commission seeks report, asks dept to take action

The Punjab State Food Commission (PSFC) has asked the food and civil supplies department to take strict disciplinary action against delinquent officials and recover the loss caused to the state exchequer in the Jandiala Guru wheat scam.

The commission has sought a detailed report from the food and civil supplies department on the missing wheat within a fortnight. It had come to the notice of the commission that Jasdev Singh, inspector, food and supplies department, the main accused in the missing wheat case, siphoned off crores of rupees given as minimum support prices (MSP) on wheat that was neither brought to mandis nor purchased, PSFC chairman DP Reddy said in a statement.

Fake entries for the purchase of 87,100 quintals of wheat valued at ₹20 crores were made and it was shown to have been transported to godowns in Jandiala Guru. He further said that the accused inspector who is believed to have escaped to Dubai, was allegedly in cahoots with Amritsar-based trader Ravinder Singh Bunty, who was arrested by the CBI recently.

The commission, while taking a senior note of the matter, has issued advice to the food and supplies department to put systems in place (administrative and technological) to prevent recurrence of such scams.