9.5 tonnes relief rice missing!
Rapid Action Battalion has found a huge discrepancy in rice being released for relief from Tejgaon central storage depot (CSD) in the capital yesterday.
A team of Rab-2 stopped two trucks carrying 30 tonnes of rice in front of CSD gate around 9:00pm Tuesday. The trucks were carrying rice meant for distribution among the flood affected people in Jatiya Party lawmaker Syed Abu Hossain's area. The food directorate officials were present during the time.
“Measuring the trucks around 2:00pm, we have only found 20.5 tonnes of rice in the truck, meaning 9.5 tonnes of rice was missing from it,” Sarwar Alam, executive magistrate of the Rab, told The Daily Star.
Each of the sacks was supposed to contain 30kg of rice but Rab found that some sacks had 12kgs while others had 14 or 20kgs of rice in them. Rab seized the underweight sacks.
Executive Magistrate Alam further said that after analysing the CSD documents, they found more discrepancies. “We have found a record which shows that 258 tonnes of rice was supplied to Dhaka district Ansar but we came to know that they only received 75 tonnes so far,” he said.
He further said that they are sending the documents to the Anti-Corruption Commission, recommending steps against persons responsible.
Regarding this, lawmaker Syed Abu Hossain told this newspaper that a section of dishonest CSD officials are responsible behind it and action needs to be taken against them.
Contacted, Humayun Kabir, manager of CSD granary, told The Daily Star that Rab stopped two trucks carrying 30 tonnes of rice just after it crossed the main gate having completed all formalities. Later, after measuring the trucks yesterday at 2:00pm, they found 9.5 tonnes of rice missing.
“We have already arranged the 30 tonnes of rice and handed it over to the concerned party for relief at 6:00pm yesterday,” he said, adding that the granary in-charge (GI) released the fresh batch of rice after measuring it. It was then loaded into the truck and a report was sent to the manager's office.
“I believe a section of workers and the GI might be responsible behind it and we are helping the Rab magistrate to take action against the perpetrators,” he added.
Kabir further said that they have already formed a three member committee to investigate the incident and he will be leading the panel. The two other members of the committee are an assistant manager and inspector of CSD.
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