West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, reacting to Jyotipriya Mallick’s arrest by the ED on Friday, said the alleged irregularities of the PDS were the biggest scandal and that it was an “organised loot” of the poor people across West Bengal.
He alleged that the ‘ration loot’ during Covid-19 period was much more deeply rooted corruption, which deprived the poor people in time crisis period (pandemic).
He dubbed the ration corruption as much bigger than the education scam, in which former education and commerce minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested. Chowdhury claimed that the education scam was a baby in comparison to the alleged PDS scandal.
Besides the ration scam, Chowdhury alleged the farmers were not provided with a price support system during the sale of their cultivated paddy.
He alleged the rice mill owners were made farmers to buy paddy, deprived the needy farmers across the state. He alleged that while the farmers were deprived of their minimum support price, rice mill owners like Bakibur Rahaman became richer.
The Congress leader also accused the Mamata Banerjee government for depriving mid day meal to the school children across the state.
He reiterated the PDS irregularities were the organised loot and the issue to be investigated thoroughly, and he demanded the arrest of those involved in the scam.
Chowdhury claimed the quality rice from FCI was sold to the market, and stale rice was given in the PDS.
Even the poor were deprived of their ration quota, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
