PANAJI
Blaming the Goa government, for the purchase of 408 MTS of Tur dal for distribution per card and its wastage by not distributing it and allowing it to rot in the storehouse, Vijay Sardesai on Monday claimed that the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Govind Gaude, minister for civil supplies and consumer affairs, both were not only in the know of this purchase but also approved it. “Documents don’t lie,” stated Sardesai, making public the cabinet note put up by the secretary, civil supplies on April 22, 2020.The note says, “The council of ministers resolved to purchase 408 MTS of Tur dal (Arhar) from National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India as per prevailing rate of Rs 79,000 per MT and to distribute the same at Rs 83 per kilo per card (including transportation and FPS dealer profit margin) at cost-to-cost basis for a period of two months.” The note further says that this has been approved by the chief minister and minister for civil supplies and consumer affairs.
Sardesai alleges after revealing this note that it is futile to now wash hands off this fiasco by the chief minister by denying involvement and that this is a lie. “The cabinet note of 2020 by the civil supplies secretary proves that the decision to purchase of 243000 kilos Tur dal was taken in consent by the then civil supplies minister Govind Gaude and the chief minister Dr Pramod Sawant. It was in the knowledge of the chief minister and he approved the purchase and gave his consent. This Tur dal was purchased when there was a lockdown in the State. Had only one kg dal been sent to the families in Goa during the lockdown, 2,43,000 families would have availed the dal. At that time Tur dal was sold in the market at the rate of Rs 200 per kg because it was not available. The person who boasts of reaching out to the last man in the line, has today cheated the public by purchasing this dal and letting it rot in the government godowns, has been proved today.”
Alleging that this is a scam similar to the Kala Academy scam, when without any tender Rs 50 crore was passed, Sardesai said the cabinet has been called to go ahead with this scam too and the chief minister is culpable for this. “The CM cannot deny now that the purchase was not in his knowledge, and he is ignorant about it. He is involved in this and should not try to make any government officer scapegoat for this crime. I feel, we should go deeper, and an SIT should investigate this matter. I am going to write to the Prime Minister that such scams are done during the lockdown period and the guilty government must be brought to book.”
