Foodgrain scam: Mystery continues over sacks bearing UP dept stamp

Ludhiana: In the alleged foodgrain and tender scam, the mystery over sacks of foodgrains bearing stamp of ‘Uttar Pradesh food and logistics department’, seized from mills of a sheller, has continued to baffle the vigilance bureau, with the authorities showing helplessness in ascertaining whether the grains have been cultivated in Uttar Pradesh or Punjab.
During the probe in the “scam”, the vigilance bureau (Ludhiana range) in September 2022 had conducted raids at four mills of sheller of Krishan Lal Dhotiwala — Ganpati Agro Rice mill, KL Agro, Surinder Agro and Singla Agro — and seized around 2,500 bags (Bardana) with the stamp of UP department. A few days later, the VB wrote to Food Corporation of India (FCI) not to further sell the foodgrains of these mills. Thereafter, the VB team collected samples of the grains from the stack and sent it for examination to ascertain if the grain “smuggled from other states” has been mixed with Punjab grains to sell it further.
Senior superintendent of police-VB (Ludhiana range) Ravinderpal Singh Sandhu said, “The vigilance bureau was awaiting a report from Punjab Agricultural University on the grain samples sent for examination. The PAU had Further sent the samples to the department of agriculture research. As the VB had recovered over 2,000 grain sacks bearing UP government stamps from the mills of Dhotiwala, it was suspected that he had smuggled UP grain into Punjab and mixed it with Punjab grain after shelling. However, the authorities replied that they don’t have any technique to differentiate grains once the shelling is done. We have also been informed that it is not necessary that the farmers use seeds of one state for cultivation.”
Besides the alleged smuggling of UP grain, there were allegations that the commission agents (arthiyas) including Dhotiwala, Anil Jain, Mahaveer Bansal and Surinder Kumar (all of Mullanpur) were allotted their owns mills for storage and shelling of grain. As per the rules, a commission agent cannot be allotted his own sheller or mill for shelling and storage of grain.
On August 16, 2022, the vigilance bureau registered a case against the owner, partners of Gurdas Ram and Company; officials of state food and civil supplies department; and employees of procurement agencies concerned for committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district. Proprietor Telu Ram of Udhanwal village, Nawanshahr, was arrested while his partners, including Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia, were booked. The VB registered the case following an inquiry which found that at the time of submitting tenders for the year 2020-21 with regard to labour, cartage and transportation works in Ludhiana district, the lists of vehicles submitted by the above mentioned contractors contained registration numbers of scooters, motorcycles, cars and other vehicles, which were not verified by officers concerned of the district tender committee due to criminal connivance with each other.
After Telu Ram, the VB booked former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu’s PA with allegations that he took money in the name of Ashu for favouring Telu Ram in getting the tender. Ashu was arrested on August 22, 2022 following by commission agent Dhotiwala.