Imphal, May 02: Along with suspending the Inspector and other dealing assistants who were involved in siphoning off the rice quota meant for distribution among the poor of people of Senapati and Saikul Sub-division in November last year, the officials concerned have been asked to frame charge-sheets against them, FCS Minister Y Erabot has informed.

Talking to mediapersons after inspecting a site at Noney for setting up of an FCS godown having capacity of storing 1000 matric tonne of rice, the Minister said the inquiry report of the rice scam has been already submitted to the Government and necessary instruction for suspension of the officials concerned have been issued.

Police have also registered a case in this connection and instructions given for framing charge sheet against the culprits, the Minister said, adding that out of the total quota of rice swindled, around 2000 quintal of rice have been recovered by the Government.

Replying to a question, the Minister said that stand of some UG groups to renounce the Kerosene quota taken earlier is appreciable and hoped that other UG organisations would also follow in public interest.

While informing that the storage tank of the PCTC Oil Pump having the storing capacity of one lakh and 30 thousand litres of Kerosene has been taken on rent and the same is being used by the FCS Department for the purpose of distributing the oil to the people, the Minister said that henceforth issuing of Kerosene quota to the MLAs and other agencies would be done through PCTC.

The Minister, however, expressed reservation against the stand of some UG groups that the Kerosene oil should be made available to the people at the rate of Rs 14 per litre saying that it would not be able to be implemented.

The Kerosene would be provided to the people at the rate fixed by the Government which is inclusive of the transportation and labour charges, the Minister said.

The decision of the India Government to provide 4 litres of Kerosene to each household based on the Census report has not yet been revised till date.

However, the failure of providing that said Kerosene litres to each household is the emergence of nucleus families in the earlier joint families, the Minister contended.

Earlier, accompanied by officials concerned of the Department, the FCS Minister inspected a site located around 1 km towards north of Noney Bazar along the Eijei (Noney river) close to the foothill for construction of a new FCS godown.

TP Cell is to construct the godown at an estimated cost of around Rs 1 crores within a year.

In connection with the proposed construction of the godown, the Minister informed that during the course of the construction, facilities for garage, chowkidar's quarters, office room, approach road along which atleast two Tata trucks can passed each other simultaneously, toilet, weight bridge and protection from rodents would be taken care of.

To protect from flood, a ringbund would also be constructed around the godown.

Instead of giving compensation to the land owners and pattadars, the State Government has also made arrangement for providing one job to each of the families, the Minister disclosed.

The Minister further informed that plans are also afoot for construction of another FCS godown having storing capacity of 2500 matric tonne on the southern side of Tamenglong district headquarters.

The godown to be construction at Noney would ensure that the people living in villages located in between New Keithelmanbi and Khongshang as well as of Tamei, Tousem and Noney Assembly Constituency and its surrounding area do not suffer from shortage of rice, the Minister assured.

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