The Jharkhand State Food Commission (JSFC) has directed the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner to probe into allegations of door-step delivery vendors not supplying stock to ration dealers from godown in Jamshedpur.

Officials of the JSFC, which is constituted in Jharkhand as per the provision of Section 16 of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013, for the purpose of monitoring and reviewing of implementation of the NFSA, were surprised at the allegations labelled by several ration dealers during the public hearing on Friday at Jamshedpur.

“It was alarming when over eight ration dealers submitted written complaints before us during the public hearing stating that door-step delivery vendors had not supplied them stock for different months while in the online portal, it is reflected that the vendor has supplied the food stock. It was alarming and surprising to note such irregularities despite the tracking mechanism of distribution vehicles at different levels. This prompted us to call for a thorough probe at the level of the deputy commissioner,” said JSFC commissioner Himanshu Shekhar Chaudhary while speaking to The Telegraph.

The commissioner admitted that this was the first such complaint received from any district. “It was very disturbing. So far we have conducted public hearings across most of the 24 districts (the public hearing campaign will conclude on October 5). Nowhere have we come across such a complaint. There is a need for a detailed probe to know the mechanism by which such fraudulent practices are carried out despite tracking the distribution vehicles through GPS and matching stock inventories online at different levels. We want to know if the ration dealers’ allegations are false or if there is any nexus between the door-step delivery vendors and the state food supply department officials,” added Chaudhary.

“Such irregularities can only happen with the nexus of the JSFC godown managers, door-step delivery vendors and the ration dealers resulting in food grains for the poor beneficiaries being sold illegally in the open market at higher prices. Only a detailed probe would unravel the culprits,” said a senior official in the food commissioner preferring anonymity.