In a country where 32.7 per cent people live below poverty line and where aspirants for membership of State Legislatives or the Parliament promise to provide people rice at one rupee a kilogram if they are voted to power, 5083.89 kilograms of sub-standard and 2396.01 kilograms of rotten rice was found in the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) stores in Leh, Nicoma, Nubra, Khaltsi, Kharu and Durbuk blocks of Ladakh. Moreover 4489.11 kg sub-standard and 1779.21 kg rotten atta was found in these stores while as 83.27 kg sub-standard and 59.27 kg rotten sugar and 956.95 kg sub-standard and 32.05 kg rotten salt was found. The total value of rotten and sub-standard ration has been worked out at Rs 1.33 crore.
How can one explain this inexcusable irresponsibility on the part of concerned officials of CAPD? Should they not be charged with criminal negligence in which the health of consumers could be at a great risk if provided with rotten and substandard food grains? Six years ago in 2007, the officers of the department on spot had reported that a huge quantity of supplies was either substandard or rotten and unsafe for distribution. The concerned authorities of the department should have taken a quick decision of ordering disposal of the unusable supplies and thus make room in various stores for storing fresh arrivals. By letting rotten food grains dumped in the same store where fresh grains are stored is a clear invitation to let the fresh stores get infected and spoilt. The substandard ration is not consumable for the livestock what to speak of human beings.
This sordid situation would not have come to light if the Deputy Commissioner of Leh had not taken the step of inspecting various stores of CAPD on receiving a clue from some official that rotten and substandard supplies were stored in many stores for last several years. His personal inspection of some of the stores revealed that large quantities of supplies amounting to nearly a crore and half rupees had been left rotting in the stores by the side of fresh supplies thus occupying space and also endangering the fresh supplies with transmission of infection from rotten stores. It was on his behest that a meeting of representatives of various departments was held and it was resolved to refer the matter to the higher authorities in General Administration for seeking proper permission for the disposal of the rotten stock. The permission is yet to be received by the Deputy Commissioner. We fail to understand whether the CAPD department has no standing rules for disposal of over-dated, sub-standard and rotten food supplies according to which concerned officials would have arranged its disposal. It is too tricky to seek permission from authorities in individual cases for disposal of unusable stocks. At the same time, the store keepers, who are regular employees of the department, had the responsibility of bringing the matter to the notice of their seniors and to plea for removal of unusable tocks to make space for the fresh arrivals. One fails to understand why this situation was allowed to continue for nearly seven years. Anybody could have filed a PIL and the court would not take a long time to censure the Government for its negligence about the safety of public health. No agency has the right to play with the health of people at large. This mishap should be an eye opener to the CAPD department and standing rules for disposal of over dated stocks should be circulated among all stores and granaries. A wrong impression is that Ladakh being a cold region and not experiencing the humidity of plains is a good place to store ration for long time as no air conditioned storage is needed. This is a wrong concept. Food stocks have their limited life after which they lose usability. Climate effect is all right but food grains have their specific life period. We would like to suggest that the CAPD should have a clearly stated format of instructions of when and how to dispose off unusable stocks and the authorities on spot should have the freedom and power to implement the standing rules without referring the matter of disposal to higher authorities. This is so because a very vast network of food storage exists in the State especially those in far off places. It is difficult for them to make repeated requests to authorities in Jammu or Srinagar. Public Distribution System has to be upgraded and made efficient to serve the interests of the people of the State.
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