The Congress on Saturday accused the State Government of involvement in a scam of Rs 300 crore in distribution of ration during the Covid-19 pandemic. With the help of bogus beneficiaries, the Government is lifting additional food grains under the National Food Security Act from the Central Government it said.
Addressing a Press conference here, party leaders Satya Prakash Nayak, Sasmita Behera and Deepak Mohapatra said that while the actual beneficiaries under the NFSA scheme is 93,06,202, not in a single month all the beneficiaries are getting the food grains and that’s the reason thousands of quintals of rice are left undistributed every month.
They questioned as to where this rice is going every month. Is it not corruption? Even, the Government has not updated the beneficiaries’ list under the NFSA. During the distribution of Covid assistance, it was also found that names of two lakh beneficiaries were missing. It’s been crystal clear that ration for these two laskh beneficiaries were siphoned off.
The Congress leaders further alleged that as the panchayat elections draw nearer, the State Government has started the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) in the whole State and distribution of the fortified rice (vitamin-rich) in Malkangiri district. Both schemes are of the Union Government; and though these schemes were already started a year ago, why the Chief Minister took such a long time to launch them now, they asked.