Six men, including the branch manager of a silo bag storage company, have been charged for allegedly mixing sand, concrete, and soil dust in government-procured wheat in Madhya Pradesh's Satna.
Just a few days ago, sand was found in sacks of government-procured paddy sent to a warehouse by a women SHG in Nagod area of the same district.
Around 7 lakh quintal of wheat procured by the government from farmers over the last two years was stored at the concerned silo, out of which around 3 lakh quintal was already transported for distribution under Public Distribution System (PDS) to various parts of Madhya Pradesh, besides Bihar and Jharkhand.
Last week, a video of sand, concrete, and dust being mixed with government-procured wheat went viral on social media. The video was shot and uploaded by Ayush Pandey, who was working as a computer operator at the same silo. He claimed that he had registered a complaint about the incident with the silo's management, but instead of acting on the complaint, the management sacked him.
A probe by a multi-department team has revealed that sand, concrete, and soil dust were mixed with the government-procured wheat at the silo in Banda village to increase the weight of the food grain before it was dispatched for distribution to BPL families under PDS.
On Thursday, NDTV questioned Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over alleged irregularities.
"Cases are being registered and people are being arrested over such irregularities," Chief Minister Chouhan said.
Subsequently, a case was registered at Rampur Baghelan police station against six men, including the concerned silo bag storage company's branch manager Jyoti Prasad, the sacked computer operator Ayush Pandey and four others under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
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