The multi-crore rupees anomalies in the public distribution system (PDS) in Bhergaon sub-division of Udalguri district of Assam involving six mills and its proprietors in Tangla of Udalguri which though came to light years back after RTI applications were spearheaded by a student leader of All Bodo Students’ Union(ABSU) action came quite late.
Sources divulged that traders identified as Santosh Kumar Agarwalla (Sree Krishna Industries), Giriraj Vyas (Maa Bhawani Industries), Pintu Ghosh (Kalpatru Modern Atta Mill), Anupama Brahma (Sree Ganesh Atta Mill) and Bimala Beria (Sree Lakshmi Rice and Modern Atta Mill) are evading arrests.
Out of them, Maa Bhawani Industries is lying defunct.
The proprietor of Agarwalla Mini Modern Atta Mill, Paban Kumar Agarwalla has already been arrested by the sleuths of BIEO from Guwahati and sent to judicial custody.
The total scam is estimated to be around Rs 13 crore.
Sources said between 2010 and 2016, around 1.378 lakh quintals of wheat were provided by the government to the six mills of Tangla in Udalguri district.
The wheat was bought by the mill owners at Rs 738 per quintal. They were supposed to provide the flour to nine gaon panchayat cooperative societies.
But the flour had not reached the beneficiaries and instead found its way to the open market, though in files they maintained that it was distributed among the cooperative bodies.
The BIEO has registered a case against the traders under IPC Sections 120 (b), 420 and 406 and under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act.
The scam have opened a rotten can of worms which might unearth scams in PDS rice, kerosene and expose the unholy nexus of sections of bureaucrats, contractors and officials of the Food and Civil Supply department in the Bhergaon sub-division, sources informed.
Highly placed sources also pointed fingers of unholy nexus of the traders with BTC Executive Member Lwmsrao Daimari and Deputy Speaker Nerswn Boro in the multi crore PDS scam in Bhergaon and Khoirabari blocks under Food and Civil Supply Department, BTC which had allegedly given the traders a free hand.
The proper investigation would unmask many new faces, sources added.
