Gurdaspur, June 11
The Food Corporation of India has ordered a departmental inquiry into allegations of extortion from the millers, confirmed General Manager (North Zone) Neelkanth Awadh to The Tribune.

At least eight prominent rice millers of Gurdaspur have sworn affidavits in which they have named FCI officials and accused them of extorting a bribe of Rs 3,000 per wagon for not rejecting the consignment. The unusual, perhaps unprecedented, affidavits have been submitted to the CBI and the Income Tax authorities along with FCI officials.

The millers claim that since they have supplied in the district 2,500 wagons of rice to the FCI so far this year, the illegal gratification collected by FCI officials would exceed Rs 75 lakh.

The millers who have submitted affidavits include Aman Mittal, Balwinderjit Singh, Yash Pal, Satwinder Singh, Harinder Singh, Harjinder Singh and Guriqbal Singh, all prominent rice millers of the district. They were forced to complain, they said, because the FCI officials now want them to pay more.

Unfazed FCI officials, however, rubbished the charge and claimed that it was a normal ploy by the millers. Two wagons supplied by Balwinderjit Singh, a complainant, worth Rs 10 lakh were rejected this season because the wagons contained more damaged rice than the prescribed limit, they pointed out. As many as 350 wagons of rice were rejected this year, they claimed.

“We send samples of damaged (rejected) rice to district laboratories.The samples are then analysed by technicians in the presence of the millers. Everything is done in a transparent manner. These affidavits are just an instrument to pressurise us to accept their broken or damaged rice,” said the Assistant Manager (Quality Control) of the FCI here.

According to government norms, not more than 3 per cent damaged or discoloured rice is accepted by the FCI.

Nahar Singh, Area Manager and the seniormost FCI official in the district, also rubbishes claims made by the millers. “At the time of acceptance of rice, the broken quantity must not exceed 28 per cent. Earlier this was pegged at 25 per cent but vide a Government of India letter dated March 23, this was increased to 28 per cent in Punjab following plantation of the 201 paddy variety in the state,” he explained.

Kapurthala, June 11
An interesting case of impersonation came to light today as the district police arrested a woman claiming to be Harsimrat Kaur, MP from Bathinda, who had been pulling up senior police and civil officials of the region.

The impersonator, Varinder, alias Vicky Passi, a resident of Shikhawala Mohalla, reportedly had been calling senior police officials frequently, directing them and getting her close associates inducted in the Punjab police, besides getting other works of theirs done from the district administration quite often.

Passi was using a mobile phone with a SIM card issued by a local mobile dealer in the name of Simro. She had fraudulently managed to get the SIM, the police said.

The woman fell in a trap when she made a phone call to the Deputy Commissioner and Anil Kumar, PA to the Deputy Commissioner, got suspicious when the woman prefixed the officer’s name with the word “sir”.

Apprehending something fishy, Anil complained to the police which subsequently laid a trap and, after investigation, found that the woman, Varinder, wife of Kuldeep Passi, was an impersonator and had been cheating government officers for quite some time.

The police has nabbed the couple and a case has been registered against them at the Sadar police station.