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NAFED top brass held guilty for last year's onion scam

The real pungent story of last year's onion crisis in Delhi is out: the top brass of NAFED, consisting of politicians and bureaucrats, squandered and pocketed Rs 12.5 million during the course of the agency's emergency onion handling operations.

An internal vigilance inquiry has found that NAFED top brass manipulated the purchase prices of onions to pocket money, sold good onions clandestinely in the market and sent rotting stocks to the government's public distribution system.

The onion crisis had led to the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Delhi state government in the assembly elections. The culprits behind the fraudulent operations are suspected to be politicians and top bureaucrats associated with NAFED.

As the government appointed principal canalising agency for farm produces, NAFED was asked by the Delhi government to import as well as internally procure onions to tide over the shortage of onions last year.

The probe has also called for handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation for nabbing those involved in the scandal.

However, instead of moving against the officials indicted in the inquiry report, NAFED management has ordered sending back the vigilance officer to his parent cadre much before the conclusion of his deputation tenure.

NAFED was asked by the Delhi government to supply 5,760 tonnes of onions on commercial level and another 6,200 tonnes for public distribution system before December 1998.

Of this order, NAFED had purchased directly from private traders about Rs 100 million worth and the rest through NAFED depots in different onion growing areas.

The vigilance inquiry found that of the direct purchase from traders, Rs 4.6 million was squandered as the NAFEDd authorities allowed the traders to charge more than their originally quoted price.

Again, 210 tonnes of onion was paid for at the rate of Rs 30,000 per tonne when the actual market prices had come down to Rs 20,000 a tonne. In this manipulation, the top brass of NAFED is accused of pocketing Rs 2.1 million.

Subsequently, the accused have made more money in short weighment of onions supplied to the Delhi government. Of the 65 trucks of onions the government asked to offload at the wholesale market in Delhi, 35 were rejected as it contained rotten and substandard onions.

How these onions came into the stream is a mystery as stocks purchased by NAFED were all certified to be of good quality. The inquiry suspects that the good stocks were sold in the market and the trucks were reloaded with susbtandard ones. The loss on this account is estimated at Rs 4.6 million.

Another eight trucks of onions from NAFED's branches were also found to be substandard stocks and the loss on this count was Rs 1.3 million. Another Rs 2 million has been lost because of the short weighing at the time of deliveries to the Delhi government. The total defrauded amount thus works out to Rs 12.5 million.

The inquiry also noted that NAFED officials did not go to Dubai and Iran to negotiate onion import deals, as directed by minister of state for agriculture Som Pal. This delayed the import purchases and aggravated the onion shortage in the country.

UNI

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