Anbumani Ramadoss has said that the Tamil Nadu government should order a CBI investigation into the allegations against public sector companies.
PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss has said on his X website:-
The Arapor charity has alleged that the Tamil Nadu government may have suffered a loss of Rs. 992 crore in the last two years due to the contract for the provision of freight services to transport the paddy bundles purchased on behalf of the Consumer Goods Trading Corporation in Tamil Nadu to milling centers and other districts, and to transport them to district procurement centers after they are processed into rice, to Muruga Enterprises, Kandasamy & Co., and Karthikeya Enterprises at a price 107 percent higher than the market price. If these allegations are true, this corruption is strongly condemned.
These allegations made by the Arapor movement cannot be easily dismissed. There are allegations that the rules have been amended to the extent that no other company other than the companies that have now been awarded the contract can participate in this contract process, and that when the South Indian Director of the Food Corporation of India refused to approve this contract jointly awarded by the Central and State governments, he was given a verbal order to go on leave and the approval was given by the Deputy Director, who is the officer next to him. If so, this means that there is a conspiracy behind this. This cannot be ignored.
This allegation made by the Arapor Movement cannot be viewed in isolation. A study conducted by the Indian Research Council for International Economic Relations has revealed that the Tamil Nadu government has suffered a loss of Rs. 1900 crore in 2022-23 due to the fact that rice, including food grains, that should have been provided under the Public Distribution Scheme, were not provided to the people free of charge and were diverted through other means. This and this allegation should be viewed together.
There is no possibility of rice being smuggled after it reaches the fair price shops. Officials working in the Consumer Goods Corporation department say that the rice that should be provided free to the people is being smuggled through the trucks used to transport it from one place to another. On the one hand, people’s tax money cannot be allowed to be looted through rice smuggling and on the other hand, by giving transport contracts to trucks.
The people have the right to know the truth about the allegations of corruption in the award of transport contracts through the Consumer Goods Corporation. Therefore, the Tamil Nadu government should order a CBI inquiry into these allegations against public sector undertakings of the central and state governments.
Thus it was stated.
