6.33 crore misappropriated in Mid-Day Meal scheme

A note prepared by the FCS Department for the review of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh states that the internal checks conducted by the department revealed misappropriation by the contractors to the tune of Rs 2.48 crore in 1996-97, Rs 2.59 crore in 1997-98, Rs 1.23 crore in 1998-99 and Rs 2.5 lakh in 1999-2000. Significantly, the contracts for lifting the foodgrain from the warehouses of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and packing them in 3 kg bags, were being awarded to private contractors till 1998-99. The contractors were found selling the rice, meant for school children, in the open market and criminal cases were filed against them. However, the money spent on the foodgrain could not be recovered, disclosed A R Dalwai, secretary, FCS Department.

Before the government fixed the price for rice at Rs 115, the private contractors were specifying very low prices to bag the contracts. This lead to cut-throat competition among them and a contractor had specified the rate of Rs 27 per quintal in Solapur in 1997-98, the FCS note says.

Cases of misappropriation came down sharply after the government decided to give the contracts to its undertakings of semi-government bodies. The decision to award the contracts to the government and semi-government bodies was taken as per recommendations of a committee headed by FCS Deputy Secretary A L Gore, appointed in 1998 to probe the complaints against private contractors.

Though a probe by the department revealed that the government bodies, too, failed to distribute foodgrain worth Rs 2.5 lakh to the students, the amount could be recovered by the government as it was in possession of guarantee money of Rs 5 crore. Further, in most of the cases, the undistributed foodgrain is lying in the warehouses of the concerned bodies and not sold in the black market, Dalwai pointed out.

Interestingly, Shiv Sena MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani has recently written to the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh seeking a probe into the contracts given to the government and semi-government bodies. The decision not to allow the private contractors to fill the tenders for the scheme was taken at the behest of certain traders who had procured sub-contracts from the government bodies, he had alleged.