Gurdaspur, July 24
In a scam unearthed recently in the district 86 trucks loads of food grains, sent by FCI to Jammu and Kashmir, have gone missing. The contract for sending the food grains from Gurdaspur stores to Jammu and Srinagar was given to Cadha enterprises.

The Cadha enterprises further hired trucks from various parts of the district to carry the food grains. However, to their surprise a large numbers of trucks never reached the destination.

Till date the investigating agencies have identified 86 trucks that have gone missing. However, highly placed sources said many more trucks might be missing. The sources said trucks that were meant to reach FCI stores in Jammu and Srinagar were unloaded at Kathua and border areas of the state.

It takes about two days for a vehicle to cover the distance up to Srinagar. However, in many cases the trucks were available again for unloading in the local truck union the very next day. The fact clearly illustrated that the entire food grains sent through those vehicles were stolen.

The FCI has forfeited the security of the company involved in the case. However, the investigating officials said they were surprised when the truck operators told them that they would provide them the receipts that the food grains had been delivered to the stores.

Despite the assurance, however, till date no truck operator had been able to provide the receipt.

The sources said since the police had already started investigating the matter, the FCI officials who were allegedly hand in glove with the accused might not have obliged them in the case.

The sources indicated involvement of local politicians in the case. They alleged that pressure was being built on the investigating officials to dilute the facts in the case.