This dates back in October 2004 when Bamang Anthony, president of Arunachal Citizens' Rights (ACR) decided to file a PIL in the Gauhati High Court regarding certain anomalies that he had smelt in the public distribution system (PDS) in Arunachal Pradesh, little did he realise that he was actually digging one of the biggest food scams in the entire subcontinent.
Six years later, he is glad his efforts have paid dividends. Former chief minister Gegong Apang has been arrested in connection with that scam, which is now believed to be of the magnitude of about Rs 1,000 crore.
Arunachal Pradesh and five other hill states of the Northeast get two types of reimbursements from the government of India for transportation of food grains under the PDS. While the first is reimbursement of Road Transport Charges (RTC) for lifting of food grains from the nearest rail head of Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots to the base depots, the second is called Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) for moving the stock from the base depots to the approved principal distribution centers.
Interestingly, even as Bamang Anthony and The Indian Express were only looking at suspected large-scale irregularities in the distribution of food grains in the state, the FCI itself found out, through a special audit, an "excess payment" of Rs 193.53 crore in just one year (2003-04).
The HTS alone for three particular years in which misappropriation was suspected was as follows: Rs 24.27 crore in 2001-02, Rs 75.03 crore in 2002-03, and Rs 279.64 crore in 2003-04.
But what was more interesting is that while on one hand the quantity of food grains "supplied" to the people of Arunachal Pradesh under PDS increased (from 54,765 MT in 2001-02 to 85,272 MT) and the reimbursement of HTS also increased, several instances also came to light where the supply records were grossly fraud and fictitious.
One such instance, which The Indian Express highlighted as an illustration of the scam, was the supply of salt under PDS in Damin, a revenue circle in Kurung Kumey district. While the circle had a population of 2,784 (according to 2001 census), records showed that every individual consumed at least 24 kg of iodised salt per month in 2004. Another instance: In Koloriang circle in the same district, roughly 4,800 persons were shown as having consumed 3,080 quintals of rice every month in 2004, which comes to 64 kg per person per month.
It is, however, not Gegong Apang alone who is suspected to be responsible for the multi-crore scam. Transporters, suppliers, government officials, political leaders including MLAs - a large number of people actually benefited from it.
In July 2004 for instance, 5,000 quintals of rice kept in some private godowns in Nagaon (in Assam) for onward dispatch to Arunachal Pradesh disappeared. Submission of false bills for carrying foodgrains by smaller vehicles (where trucks can't ply) and by headloads (to villages which have no road links) was another means of siphoning off huge sums. In some instances, registration numbers of mini-trucks shown in bills were later found out to be of scooters and motorbikes.
What was most interesting is the story of a government officer, N N Osik, then director of civil supplies, who opened a separate account in the SBI at Itanagar just to receive "commissions" from the contractors engaged for transportation.
Between October 4, 2002 and July 16, 2003, Osik's balance in this account rose to Rs 2.85 crore. On one single day, February 14, 2003, numerous people deposited a total sum of Rs 97 lakh. What Osik immediately did was change his name, by an affidavit, to N Lego.
His name figures along with Apang's in a list of 40 accused persons, which the Special Investigation Cell probing the scam submitted to the the Gauhati High Court in October 2008.
Source: Indian Express
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