SANGUEM
Rice infested with maggots was found at a Fair Price Shop (FPS) in Wadem-Sanguem, prompting angry locals to confront officials at the civil supplies office in Sanguem on Friday.
Led by panchayat members Josephine Fernandes and Chandan Unandkar, the locals marched to the civil supplies office after officers failed to replace the bad rice which was distributed at the FPS at Wadem village.
Villagers informed that the rice supplied at the local FPS in Wadem was filled with maggots and that it was unfit for human consumption.
“When this matter was brought to the notice of the civil supplies office at Sanguem, the official Sanjiv Naik inspected the FPS and told the FPS owner to stop supplying the rice to the ration card holders,” said Unandkar.
However, as the FPS owner did not get replacement for the spoilt rice and allegedly continued distributing the same to the villagers, infuriated locals marched to the civil supplies office at Sanguem.
When confronted by the locals, Sanjiv Naik informed them that the rice supplied was old and would be replaced soon. Naik also assured the agitators that such incidents would not be repeated in future.
Incidentally, the villagers complained that this was not the first time that inferior quality rice was being distributed at the FPS in the village. They claimed that they were compelled to take the bad rice for the fear of cancellation of their ration cards by the civil supplies department.
The villagers have now asked authorities to conduct a quality check of the rice and other commodities supplied at the FPSs.
Incidentally, the civil supplies office at Sanguem pushed the blame on the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for not conducting proper checks on the rice supplied to the civil supplies department.
