Centre tells state govt to check 30 more food items

NAGPUR: After the Maggi episode, the Centre has forwarded to the state government a list of 30 more items, mainly fast food products, to be put through checks and testing for quality of contents, Maharashtra food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat said here on Monday.

Bapat, who was here for hearing of appeals regarding public distribution system, said the state would now take proactive steps for stringent quality checks of food products and for this purpose modern testing centres are being set up in Nagpur and Aurangabad. Currently, the state has only one such facility, in Pune.

Speaking on his experience as the minister in last seven months, he alleged that the food and civil supplies appeared to be the most ‘neglected’ in the last 15 years during the rein of Congress-led governments in the state. “There is a leak of foodgrains worth Rs3,000 crore in the public distribution system (PDS). As a result, foodgrains meant for the poor and needy do not reach them and end up in open market. There is a big racket involving transporters, middlemen, mill owners to officials of the department.

“I have accepted the challenge to clean up this system and take stringent action against those officials found involved. Already, a Rs8.4 crore fraud has been detected and some officials have been suspended. But there is a lot more to do. For instance, I need to press for strict legislation to act against the wrongdoers so that they are dealt with exemplary punishment,” said Bapat. Some provisions of Food Security Act also need to be amended as has been done by Tamil Nadu, he said.

Admitting that at least 40% of posts in the food and civil supplies as well as the food and drugs administration (FDA) departments that he handles are lying vacant, Bapat said he had initiated steps to get the required manpower. For vigilance section, retired policemen could be hired on contract, he said. “To increase efficiency of food and drugs inspectors, they would be provided laptops,” the minister added.

Listing other important plans for improving the PDS, Bapat said his ministry had embarked on total computerization of work to enable easy tracking of foodgrains from godown to ration shops, making it compulsory to fit GPS tracking on all PDS transport vehicles, biometric registration of ration cards identifying two per family entitled to pick the ration and Aadhar Card linking of the ration cards.

Bapat’s predecessor, Anil Deshmukh, when asked about the allegations of rampant corruption and continued neglect of the ministry, said he would react only after reading full text of the minister’s remarks.