Srinagar Dec 17: Three days after the police recovered huge “CAPD supplies” from a private godown in Batamaloo here, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Qamar Ali Akhoon today said, “So far there has been no clear evidence provided to us (by the police)” against the alleged corrupt officials of the department purported to be involved in various scams.
 “We can take action against the officials only if proof is provided to us against them. All the cases (against CAPD officials) are still pending with investigation teams,” the minister told Greater Kashmir. He said the police claimed to have busted rackets, “but it is yet to be proved whether CAPD was involved in them.”
 On the other hand the minister said they have increased the vigilance by forming market checking squads and monitoring cells to ascertain the public distribution system works effectively.
 “On Saturday our squad has recovered 2500 litres of kerosene oil meant for distribution,” Akhoon said. “We have cancelled the license of the holder”. Akhoon said their checking squads are taking immediate action whenever they receive complaints.
 To mention, on Dec 16 police raided the godown in Batamaloo here recovering thousands of quintals of rice, flour and sugar meant for public utilization.  The police termed the racket as a multi-crore scam involving officials of CAPD (CAPD), Food Corporation of India (FCI) and private businessman.
 Earlier, on Dec 11, the police claimed to have stumbled on a high profile scandal in which ration procured from Punjab, after being registered with the FCI and CAPD departments, was repacked and then sold in open market to make quick bucks by the officials in connivance with the contractors.  They said a case in this regard was registered at police station Shergarhi and two persons arrested and that they also seized machine used to put seal on the bags.
 On April 30, this year Police arrested nine employees of CAPD for alleged misappropriation of huge consignment of rice and flour. On March 8 Police unearthed a “well-knit and deep-rooted black-marketing mafia” in the CAPD. The investigations were initiated after police seized two oil tankers- carrying 17,000 litres of kerosene- one each at Alochi Bagh and Batamaloo Srinagar. Following investigations led to arrest of nine people.
 Meanwhile, the faction of Employees Joint Action Committee led by Khursheed Alam has threatened to launch agitation against police “excesses” against the CAPD officials. The employees in the CAPD and FCI Kashmir had gone on a day-long strike on Saturday.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 IST