Panaji, May 14 (). Goa’s Civil Supplies Department, which has often been in the news for wastage of grains in godowns, has once again supplied insects, weevils and fungus-affected rice in ration to cardholders of the coastal state.
Speaking to , Director Civil Supplies Gopal Parsekar said that it is true that some fair price shops have found spoiled rice, which will be replaced soon.
“We usually check the rice stored in the godowns, however the pictures of the supplied rice clearly show that it is spoiled and hence we will replace it,” he said.
Former Civil Supplies Minister Jose Philip D’Souza lambasted the officials for wastage of this huge amount of rice.
Goa NCP president D’Souza said civil supplies inspectors should check the grain before delivering it to fair price shops (FPS). I don’t blame the minister directly, but it is the officer’s job to investigate. They have not checked it and hence these grains have reached FPS.
He said that when the FPS owners came to know that the rice was infected, they should not have given it to the public. They should also be blamed for this as they failed to bring it to the notice of the authorities, D’Souza said.
When I was a minister, we never distributed such items to the public, he said. People should not be taken lightly and such perishable goods should not be supplied. The government failed to stop it. It should be sent back to the central government.
D’Souza said, I am really sad that such bad rice is supplied to the public. The godowns should be good and the goods kept there should be taken care of.
He said that it was wasteful to supply bad rice and then reject it and send it back to the godowns through the fair price shop. Why waste money on transportation.
On the condition of anonymity, an FPS owner said that it is wrong for the department to supply such infected rice to them.
They should check it and then send it to us, he said. How can we supply such rice to the public. It would be wrong on our part if we do so. This is complete failure of management by the department. The responsible officials should be booked otherwise such things will continue.
In August last year, the Civil Supplies Department came under criticism after 241 tonnes of tur dal was found to be spoiled in godowns.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had then said that officials responsible for wastage of 241 tonnes of pigeon pea would face action.
Sawant had said that the government will not tolerate incidents like rotting of tur dal. Action will be taken against the officers responsible for this. Strict action will be taken against the officials if more defective goods are found in the godowns. There cannot be wastage even if the godown is not in good condition. It (commodities) should be used before expiry.
akj
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