Ganj Basoda (Madhya Pradesh): A team led by sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Vijay Rai and Tehsilder Sandeep Jaiswal raided a shop near Ganj village late Thursday evening to check black marketing of food grains, official sources said. During the raid, the team came to know that besides rice, wheat and other items were black-marketed.
They also came across a few people who were involved in trading food grains without any licence. Nevertheless, the team of the food department did not confirm whether the rice was meant for PDS shops. But the papers provided by the shopkeeper to the officials indicated that the rice stock was eight-month-old.
The raid continued till early hours of Friday, official sources further said. Rai said if the rice was meant for PDS shops, severe action would be taken against the owner of the shop. According to sources, wheat meant for PDS shops was found inside the food grain outlet which was raided.
The team comprising Rai, junior supplies officer and others went to the shop near Ganj village at 8pm on Thursday on the basis of complaints that the shop is selling the rice meant for PDS shops. Nevertheless, since the shopkeeper has political clout, the officials of the district administration did not act against him.
When Rai inspected the shop, he found a huge quantity of rice in a store built behind the shop. Besides rice, wheat, Masoor, mustard, gram and paddy were stocked in the store. It came to light that the shopkeeper did not have the licence to keep such a huge quantity of food grains, but it did not collect rice samples.
Junior civil supplies officer Pinki Shakya said they were probing the case. A few months ago, rice and wheat were stolen from PDS shops for which FIRS were registered. Mandi inspector Shambhu Singh Raghuwanshi, a member of the team, said Ashok Traders where the food grains were found was not registered with the Mandi Board. It was registered in the name of Rishav Traders, he said.
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