the goan I network
PANAJI
Congress spokesperson Amarnath Panjikar on Monday alleged that the supplier of vegetables to the horticulture ‘kiosks’ was siphoning funds meant to be disbursed as subsidy to the vegetable vendors.
Panjikar also alleged that the supplier - Adi Agro Ventures - was doing it with the blessings of a “senior minister in the government, from an alliance party.”
Addressing the media on Monday at the Congress headquarters, Panjikar said that although the horticulture kiosk scheme was started in Goa to make good, cheap and fresh vegetables available to the people as well as an employment opportunity for Goan youth, it is now going for a toss, and was only benefiting the vegetable suppliers.
According to Panjikar, Vinit Vasant Bichu, Ganesh Jyotiba Oulkar from Belgaum and Adaw D’Souza Francis from Vengurla, all directors of Adi Agro Ventures, were involved in the scams.
“Over 2,000 vendors’ businesses will be in trouble if the government doesn’t conduct an enquiry into the matter immediately,” Panjikar said, adding that the suppliers fix the rate of vegetables without consulting the vendors and refuse to take back unsold vegetables.
“So the vendor has to bear the cost. This is unacceptable,” Panjikar said, adding that the regular stakeholder meetings which used to be a quarterly event, had stopped for the past four years.
“The vendors have no forum to voice their grievances. Further, route suppliers (around 40 of them in Goa) had begun harassing the vendors instead of helping them,” he claimed.
The government has also crossed the Rs 20-crore sanctions meant for the kiosks, due to siphoning of funds.
“In the name of one vendor “ Chandranath Raul from Mapusa“ the suppliers are siphoning off thousands of rupees per day,” claimed Panjikar, flashing documents that the Congress had obtained.
In addition to all these problems, “Taza Tokri” is running parallel to the Horticulture Corporation’s kiosk scheme. While the suppliers to both are the same, Taza Tokri is getting veggies cheaper than the horticulture kiosks and as such, putting them out of business. Already, many kiosks have shut shop, said Panjikar.
The Congress also questioned whether Praveen Zantye, the Chairman of the Horticulture Corporation was aware of what was happening.
