In a petition to the Member Traffic , Ministry of Railways, "JANMAT ", a people's organisation, urged the Government for its immediate intervention for not entertaining wrong practice of putting multiple indents in different names and ensure fair allocation of rakes for all stakeholders for Dhamra and Paradip ports. This would, in turn, ensure that tribal people of Odisha earn well, and the Government also receives its due revenue, it said.
In the petition , of which coppies submitted to the Railway Minister, the Chairman Railway Board and other investigating agencies, the JANMAT appraised about the malpractices being adopted by one, Rashmi Group, by placing indents in the name of its different companies and consequently receiving maximum allocation of rakes from the Railways, specifically, the SE Railways (SER).
Rashmi Group continues to take undue advantage of getting the maximum allocation of rakes meant for pellet exports from Dhamra and Paradip ports by placing a large number of indents under different consignors’ names and one or two consignees belonging to Rashmi group itself viz Orissa Metaliks from Kharagpur and Chakradharpur divisions.
When the tribal people of Odisha are struggling for bread due to less allocation of rakes to the mines in Joda and Keonjhar area, at that time ,the Rashmi Group is exporting about 2 million tonnes of pellets from Dharma earning revenue of over Rs 1,420 crore.
To check the massive fraud, the JANMAT demanded that the validity of the indents for pellets must be enforced for two months, and thereafter the pending indents must stand cancelled as is the case for iron ore. The consignor should have a pellet plant and, in case of a trader, should be required to show proof of ownership of the pellets. This would prevent GST leakage and the possible fraud of the Rashmi Group. Likely, a maximum of only three indents per valid consignee may be permitted from one railway siding to a particular destination, except for the CBT programme.
It also demanded to cancel all indents over and above of 3 indents per consignee per loading station per destination other than CBT. The JANMAT demanded Vigilance/CBI inquiry into the fraud of Rashmi Group.