Bhayandar: Hundreds of empty tur dal packets, supplied by the Maharashtra government to ration card holders were found in dumps of garbage in the Pleasant Park area of Mira Road, pointing towards rampant corruption in the public distribution system (PDS) of Thane district.
Local social activists Namdev Kashid and Anil Nautiyal first noticed the empty packets and informed local rationing department in Bhayandar, following which a team led by assistant rationing officer Ganesh Tirpane, inspected the spot and took the packets into custody.
As per statistics sourced out from the rationing department, a total of 121 fair price shops are currently operating as point of sales in the twin-city under the PDS. The government had recently supplied around 220 quintals of packaged tur dal to 20 shops.
It is suspected that unscrupulous ration dealers in connivance with the PDS officials might have siphoned off the packets to supply into the black market.
“The spot from where the empty packets have been recovered is far away from the vicinity of those shops which have been supplied with the commodity. However, efforts were on to trace the destination of the consignment on the virtue of the batch number and packaging dates printed on the packets. We have informed our higher-ups about the incident,” confirmed a senior rationing officer.
It should be noted that government has recently started selling tur dal through the public distribution system.
A section of rationing shop owners in the region have earned notoriety for massive irregularities and malpractices in the distribution system.