Giant Agri Cooperative NAFED which till yesterday was pride of cooperatives of the country is finding itself embroiled in scams of all variety. Santosh Hegde, Lokayukta of Karnataka who forced BJP CM Yeddyurappa to resign has also named NAFED as involved in wrong doing in Karnataka.
Nafed’s Banglore unit is charged with illegal export of iron ore. Charges of financial irregularity has also been slapped on it by the Lokayukta.
The Lokayukta has recommended that the State government should request Centre to take action against NAFED. Union Government should initiate action those involved in illegal mining.
In a Chapter titled ‘Illegal export by NAFED’, Santosh Hegde has said that NAFED has been involved in dubious transactions and transport of iron ore to various ports.
Also, there is no information on the source of procurement of iron ore, nor is there any information about the issue of permits in their favour.
The financial irregularities pertaining to iron ore export between 2004 and 2006 have also come to light.
NAFED took up export of iron ore on public private partnership with Disha Impex Pvt Ltd, New Delhi; Hemani Transport and Trading Corporation, Bangalore; and Swarup Group of Industries, Mumbai, during this period.
The Federation claimed to have exported 3.18 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of iron ore in 2004-05 and 2005-06 to China.
It has, however, submitted details of procurement for a quantity of 2.02 lakh MT of ore. As per its own statement, there is a difference of 1.15 lakh MT, which is unaccounted for.
As per the MoU signed between NAFED and Disha Impex, the latter is supposed to have procured 85,000 MT of iron ore fines and 65,000 MT of iron ore mud.
Since some stock was already with the company, it had a total of 1.5 lakh MT ore with it as on March 2004.
As per the statement of Mysore Minerals Ltd (MML), it has supplied 3,271 MT ore to Disha between 2004 and 2006. NAFED claims that it bought 1.5 lakh MT of ore from Disha. Since there is no additional supply from MML to Disha, the source of procurement by Disha is dubious. Also, there is no match of procurement from MML, as per the agreement between NAFED and Disha.
Lokayukta’s investigations revealed that Disha, in its letter dated October 23, 2010, has stated that it has neither purchased nor exported any iron ore. The Lokayukta has recommended that the State government recommend to the Centre to take action against NAFED, and also initiate action against those involved in illegal mining.
Lokyukta favours strong action against wrong doers in NAFED.