Badal seethes over CBI's rice probe

Badal seethes over CBI's rice probe
HARISH GUPTA

NEW DELHI, MAY 20: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and its ally, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, are heading for a confrontation over a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe ordered by the Ministry of Food against rice millers for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 250 crore to the Centre in 1994-95 by selling off paddy stored with them by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

The State Government has told the Centre bluntly that the CBI probe ordered by it was a direct interference in the "internal affairs" of the state government which was against the federal structure envisaged in the Constitution.

The Punjab government told the Centre that it had already taken a decision at a Cabinet meeting in Chandigarh in April this year regarding recovery of the remaining paddy from the millers. Badal's government conveyed to the Prime Minister that since the paddy had been procured by the State Government on behalf of the FCI and stored with the rice millers, a probe bypassing the State Government was uncalled for. Stressing that it was the duty of the State Government to recover the paddy from them, it said the Food Ministry could make a claim for recovering its dues, if there were any, but couldn't take direct action against the millers.

A copy of the Cabinet note with The Indian Express shows that the Punjab government decided that the matter be referred for arbitration.

The allegation against the millers is that 46.24 lakh tonnes of paddy was kept with them by the FCI but it was found later that the mills had sold off a huge portion at throwaway price, saying it was damaged and broken due to heavy rain.

The Punjab Government has, in fact, challenged the claim of the FCI about the shortfall in paddy. It said of 46.24 lakh tonnes of paddy, 29.20 lakh tonnes was stored in the mills and accounted for. Of the remaining 17.04 lakh tonnes, 15.03 lakh tonnes was sold under the `open sale' policy cleared by the Food Ministry itself while 36,000 tonnes was waived as "driage". There was a shortfall of 1.65 lakh tonnes only and the Punjab government was making efforts to recover this paddy.

It also argued that the `open sale' policy was adopted in early 1995 by the Centre when the mills said the remaining paddy of 17.04 lakh tonnes had been damaged by rain. Hence, the price of paddy was reduced from Rs 442 per quintal to Rs 220 per quintal.

Union Food Minister Shanta Kumar, however, believes that the mill owners and government officials in the state and at the Centre had hatched a conspiracy to get the `open sale' policy through in the name of rain and sold the entire 17.04 lakh tonnes at a premium, inflicting losses on the Centre.

Prabhat Kumar, now Cabinet Secretary, was then Chairman of the FCI while A K Gokak was Managing Director and Jakhanwal Food Secretary. Ajit Singh was the Food Minister then in the Narasimha Rao Government.

The Punjab government's argument is that the `open sale' policy was proposed by the FCI and adopted by the Centre. The Punjab government had no role in it except for suggesting it. However, Shanta Kumar has made it clear that the probe was not against the millers alone. It was against all those who hatched a conspiracy to defraud the country.