Top officials of the food and civil supplies department face a legal battle as Pune-based RTI activist, Jayprakash Narayan Unecha, has filed a public interest litigation against them.
Top officials of the food and civil supplies department face a legal battle as Pune-based RTI activist, Jayprakash Narayan Unecha, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against them for allegedly cheating the government of over Rs13.5 crore by ignoring a fraud committed by three ration shops.
The PIL names food and drug officer (FDO) of Pune, Pradip Patil, deputy secretary and executive officer of food, civil supplies and consumer department, Pramod Gholap, and deputy commissioner (supply) of Pune division, Arun Unhale, along with former minister for food, civil supplies and consumer protection, Rameshchandra Bang.
The three ration shop license holders — Gulabchand Ramji Dangi, Babulal Deepchand Sharma and Satish Keshav Walunj of Gokhalenagar — and the then additional collector (supply), Vasant Vaidya, have also been named in the PIL. The alleged fraud by the three ration shop license holders took place between 2000 and 2008.
Addressing a press conference Unecha said, “Using the Right to Information Act. I came to know that the verifying squad appointed by the government found that out of the 2,794 ration cards held by the three ration shop license holders, 1,871 ration cards were bogus and forged by them to lift kerosene from the poor people’s quota.”
“By lifting 35,70,000 litre of kerosene worth Rs13.56 crore in the name of public distribution system, Dangi, Sharma and Walunj actually sold it in the black market and made money,” alleged Unecha. “After the verifying squad found the bogus licenses, Pradip Patil suspended the licenses of the three ration shop owners, following which the trio appealed to Arun Unhale, who kept the order by Patil as it is.”
According to Unecha, the three ration shop license holders appealed to the then food & civil supplies and consumer protection minister, Rameshchandra Bang, and deputy secretary and executive officer, Pramod Gholap, who set aside the suspension order by Patil and directed the department concerned to recover the amount at Rs38 per litre of kerosene from Dangi.
“But Patil conspired with the trio and asked the trio to pay the amount at Rs10 per litre of kerosene,” Unecha alleged. His lawyer, Mahendra Kawchale, said the hearing of the PIL will be on December 9 in the Bombay high court.
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