Home By the Way Food Mafia in UP
By the Way

Food Mafia in UP

Who is the most powerful functionary in the Uttar Pradesh bureaucracy? Obvious answer should be the Chief Secretary of the state. No. The most influential civil servant in Uttar Pradesh is the Panchayat Secretary of a District. He is the nerve centre of the villages in his/her district. The State has about one lakh villages. As per the Government scheme to feed the poorest, nearly 500 below poverty line (BPL) villagers in each village are being provided daily rations like rice, wheat, kerosene, sugar and salt. Sources disclosed that State politicians and civil servants are running the biggest mafia in the Public Distribution System. The modus operandi is simple: the wholesale distributor just allocates half the ration to the village supplier and the latter distributes half the sanctioned limit. The rest is sold in the open market at little lower than market prices. The village Pradhan has nothing to do with the distribution of the ration as the State Government has appointed private agencies in the villages. At a conservative calculation of one lakh villages and 500 people in each, every day 5 crore people are fed by the State and even if one rupee is siphoned each day per person, it comes to Rs. 18,000 crore each year. The villagers are still starving. Will anybody wake up in Uttar Pradesh!

Related Articles

Prime Minister Narendra Modi
By the Way

PMO overhaul

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reshuffled his office during the Covid-19 crisis....

Dome_of_North_Block
By the Way

Hole in Pocket

Covid-19 has without doubt created havoc in India. It has impacted even...

JK map
By the Way

KAS : Murmu’s Challenge

Girish Chand Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS (retd) officer of the Gujarat cadre,...

red tepism
By the Way

Red tapism prevails

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought details about movement of files, particularly...