Now, Shobha targets PDS leakages

State losing nearly Rs 125 crore every month, says Shobha

“We have been able to ascertain that there is a huge transport mafia which operates, perhaps, in collusion with the ration shop owners in siphoning huge chunks of foodgrains meant for the BPL families,” said Minister Shobha Karandlaje.

‘No middlemen’

Henceforth, the ration shop owners will have to transport the foodgrains from the State godowns to their shops on their own and cannot involve any ‘middlemen’ to ferry the food stocks, the minister said.

“Of course, we will reimburse the cost borne by the fair price shop owners,” she said. The department has mooted the idea to tap the ‘leakage’ in foodgrains supply at the ration shops.

“The transporters, sometimes in collusion with shop owners, do not supply the requisite amount of foodgrains to the fair price shops. When the requirement is 20 bags of wheat, they supply only 15 bags and sell the rest in the black market,” said Karandlaje.

Figures mismatch

The minister further added that there have been complaints in the department over the fair price shop owners misusing the ration cards to corner foodgrains and selling them in the black market.

Though the actual estimates show that there are only 32 lakh BPL families, the number of ration cards distributed among the people is nearly 98.5 lakh.

“We are losing nearly Rs 125 crore every month on account of the huge mismatch in the figures. Some share of the money goes into the pockets of the transporters and some to the fair price shop owners,” said the Minister.