Bangalore: The State government has sought that jurisdictional Superintendents of Police (SPs) directly monitor cases and complaints pertaining to hoarding and illegal sale of rice meant for Anna Bhagya scheme.
A request to this effect was communicated to Director General and Inspector General of Police by Food and Civil Supplies Department recently.
The move was felt necessary by the department following its perception that the kingpins behind the hoarding and illegal sale of rice were still at large.
Since October 2013, as many as 68 cases of hoarding and illegal sale of rice pertaining to Anna Bhagya scheme have been registered.
However, in most cases only the driver and cleaner of the lorry in which the grains were being transported have been arrested, while the actual kingpins behind the racket are not identified.
Food and Civil Supplies Department Commissioner Harsh Gupta recently met DG and IGP Lalrokhuma Pachuau and requested that the investigation into such cases be taken up at the SP/DCP level.
There have been allegations that contractors transporting the grains from the godowns of Food Corporation of India to the godowns at the taluk-level are diverting the rice to the black market.
Unless the police book cases against contractors indulging in such illegal activities, the department will not be able to take action or blacklist them, Gupta said.
