Meghalaya: 'Rice Scam' allegations are baseless, says Minister Paul Lyngdoh

Meghalaya Minister Paul Lyngdoh on June 7 said that the alleged “Rice Scam” is baseless and there is no iota of truth in any of the allegations. 

He said that the Account General (AG) of Meghalaya is very clear and lucid on the views put forward by the state government. 

Lyngdoh also informed that the office of AG has pointed out in the observations that the allegations have no legs to stand upon, therefore, the case cannot be regarded as a “scam”. 

“Having obtained the views of the Law department,  the Advocate General and having observed the view that the actual incident and the case were delayed because of the lack of coordination with the Assam Police where the scam was taken place. I have observed accordingly that in future there will be a definite timeline for inquiries so parties and departments who have alleged in committed such scams are dragged into needless controversy”, he added. 

It may be mentioned, in 2021, the Assam Police seized one lakh bags of rice from a private godown in Boko of Kamrup district, Assam. Each bag contained 50 kg of rice, an alleged multi-crore rupees foodgrain scam, involving the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Shillong. 

Replying to a question as to how the Assam Police seized 1lakh bags of rice belonging to Meghalaya, Lyngdoh said, “As per the file records, it is just a matter of location which was not properly recorded therefore the case was handed over to the Assam Police and on further inquiries and based on the inquiry report the file then went through the law department and the Advocate General and they were very clear that no such scam has taken place”. 

However, after the alleged scam has been reported, the Meghalaya government has washed its hands as Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma said the incident had nothing to do with the public distribution system (PDS) in Meghalaya. 

He said the verbal reports he received suggested the state has received its quota of PDS rice under the National Food Security Act, 2013, for May and June in advance. 
''CM Conrad also said that if rice of such a huge quantity had gone missing, it would have come to everyone’s notice,'' he said.

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