Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, May 22: It may sound surprising to many but it is true that several officials of the CAPD Department despite being held responsible for the shortage/ pilferage of food grains worth over 70 lakhs in CAPD stores at Chatha, Central Store and New Store at Ware House, in Jammu have gone unpunished.
It is amazing how these ‘influential storekeepers’, said to be the blued eyed of some senior bureaucrats were allowed to go scot free, even after committing shortage of hundreds of quintals of wheat/ Atta, rice and sugar in Government stores.
It is more shocking and surprising to observe that when a team of senior officials headed by an officer of the rank of Deputy Director appointed by the Government identified the fraud/ shortage worth over Rs 70 lakhs in these main CAPD stores of Jammu, even then the accused officials were allowed to let go by the system prevailing in the CAPD department. The seniors washed their hands off from the fraud, merely by effecting attachment of just two. No one was suspended and no recovery was made from them.
Sources in the CAPD told the Excelsior that shortage of 1500 quintals of wheat, nearly 1300 quintals of rice and nearly 125 quintals of sugar had been detected by the team of officials last year. Two officers of the rank of Assistant Directors including a woman officer of KAS rank conducted the extensive verification of the stores on the directions of the Government. Not only this, further more shortage was detected in the Central Store and Chatha stores, but the issue was covered up by the senior officers despite the fact that pilferage worth lakhs of the public money was committed by the Government servants.
The sources further revealed that the team had fixed the responsibility on the five storekeepers including Kulwant Singh, Ramesh Singh, Devinder Singh, Sunil Singh and Tilak Singh and had also recommended that recovery be made from the officials responsible for this pilferage of public ration from the CAPD stores but no action was taken against them for the reason best known to the officers at the helm of affairs. One Kulwant Singh was attached to the Directorate for some time while others kept working in the stores.
One Ramesh Singh Chib who recently fell into the trap after police seized two trucks of food grains pilferaged from Chatha store, was placed under suspension by the department after a case FIR was registered by police. Another official Ranjit Singh Chib was also suspended in this connection.
A senior officer in the department said that the then Deputy Director A K Kotwal, Assistant Director Preeti Sharma and another Assistant Director were asked to conduct inquiry / physical verification of the stores after some shortage was reported from there.
Over 1300 quintals of shortage of rice was detected in Central store of the CAPD besides large scale wheat. While two inquiry officers have now been posted in some other departments, one is still in the CAPD department.
The sources said that these old store-keepers did not hand over the charge to the stores to the new officials after their transfers. It is old tradition in these stores that to over up their misdeeds, the old storekeepers do not handed over the charge to the next officials. The shortage goes on and this is perhaps the biggest ever scandal in the CAPD. The record is tampered and old files are misplaced deliberately to cover up the scandal, the officer maintained.
Minister for CAPD, Ch Zulfkar Ali when contacted said that he was not aware of the matter. He told the Excelsior that he would have taken serious note of the matter had the matter been reported to him by his officers. He said that pilferage or shortage of hundreds of quintals of food grains and sugar in the Government stores is a serious issue and he will not spare any one.
The Minister further claimed that he would seek details from the Director CAPD Jammu, G S Chib and other officers concerned. After holding inquiry personally into the matter, he would take strict action against the officials pin pointed by the committee and recovery in terms of cash, of the swindled food grains/ ration, will be made from them. He got surprised how he was not made aware of the matter by his officers.
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