The incidents of groundnut godowns catching fire in Gujarat have snowballed into a major face-off between the State govt and the Nafed top brass. The two sides- the state govt and the Nafed are blaming each other for the mishap.
But who did it still is an arguable point. Indian Cooperative has talked to a number of cooperators connected to the episode and was appalled to find a plot aimed at looting the public exchequer so cynically!
In simple words- the Central govt appointed Nafed as procurement agency for groundnuts and wanted it to collaborate with the state govt to complete the job. It was the state govt which did most of the distribution of procurement jobs. Among others, Gujcomasol also got about 15 per cent of the job from the state govt, much less than the last year.
There was a large-scale bungling in the procurement – most of which was being carried out by local BJP leaders. The sacks of groundnuts were mixed with dust and other stuff to weigh more. These were kept in godowns where later they were burnt in order to destroy the evidence of bungling.
The huge difference in the price of groundnut between cooperative procurement center and the general market started all this. While NAFED purchased 9.30 lakh MT groundnuts at MSP of Rs. 900 per ton from farmers, the same was sold at Rs 400 in open market. It is inevitable that corruption would creep in, say experts.
Readers would know that godowns in Gujarat enter into contractual relations with the Warehousing Corporation of the state. They are paid high rent of Rs 15 per square feet per month to ensure the safety of stuff kept. Indian Cooperative has learnt that the Warehousing Corporation reeks of corruption of which even Chief Minister is aware but he fights sigh of curbing it.
“A well-meaning govt would have cancelled the contract, imposed a heavy penalty, if not arrested the godown owners”, said a top cooperator. But the corrupt Warehousing Corporation has made no move in this direction, top bosses of which have blessing of the state BJP top guns including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, allege sources.
But it does not mean that Nafed gets a clean chit. Its two agencies appointed to check the quality of procured items are also alleged to have colluded with the locals in certifying the quality of groundnuts thus procured. National Bulk Handling Corporations and Agri Star-the two agencies have much to answer for and Nafed would do well to take them to task including black-listing them immediately for not red-flagging the matter.
Having survived a near death-like situation the agri cooperative can hardly afford to be careless. “The Board must ask its MD Sanjiv Chaddha as to what he did when he went to Gujarat to check this malpractice. The Board should also black-list the two agencies with immediate effect”, felt several cooperators in Delhi.
V R Patel, NAFED Chairman may be right in pointing out the state govt’s role in the procurement but he cannot put a brave face on the sloppy work the two quality-check agencies empaneled by Nafed have put in.