Kerosene oil fraud

Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution Department (CAPD) is known to the consumers for many of its irregularities, some of which the media exposed in the past.
Close on the heels of the irregularities which have involved nearly four score of officials of the Department, the kerosene oil fraud in the District of Udhampur has now hit the headlines of print media. Seriousness of the fraud is to be understood as the Minister in charge has ordered constituting of kerosene scam committee to conduct investigation into the irregularities and fraudulent activities of the department reported by no less a  responsible person than the District Commissioner of Udhampur. After receiving many complaints from consumers and others, the DC Udhampur ordered preliminary investigation into the distribution system of kerosene in the district. To his great surprise, the investigation revealed glaring fraudulent practices observed by the district functionaries of the CAPD. Consequently, he reported the matter to the higher authorities along with the findings of the team he had appointed to investigate into the complaints. It was on the behest of the report from the DC Udhampur, that the Minister has now constituted what is called the kerosene fraud investigation committee.
Coming to the findings of inquiry ordered by the DC of Udhampur, whatever revealed by it is shocking and surprising. Actually, the CPAD has two agencies for distribution of kerosene oil to the consumers. One is the CPAD sale centres and Cooperative Societies. The latter is not required to obtain license for distribution while the former do need them. Cooperative Societies maintain full record of receipts and distribution and all entries are made in the books. It is so because the Cooperative Societies are Semi Government agencies and have the standardized system of documentation. We find that during past three years, the CPAD has allowed 78 per cent of kerosene oil quota to the CPAD sales centres and only 22 per cent to the Cooperative Societies. Normally the figures should have been the reverse of what they are. Furthermore, during the detailed exercise conducted by the committee, it came to fore that Cooperative Societies and CAPD Department distributed 1.03 crore liters of oil during the last three years. Out of total kerosene oil distributed, Cooperative Department distributed 23.34 lakh liters and the CPAD distributed 80.58 lakh liters. Above all, the distribution system by Cooperative Societies covered only 39,000 families while CPAD sales centres covered 50276 families.
From these figures and the functioning of the CPAD, it is clear that the department has been giving preference to the sales centres and not to the cooperative societies. Absence of proper record of distributions made by departmental sales centres is what a big fraud appears. More than 80 lakh liters of kerosene distributed by the sales centres to phony consumers are unaccounted. There is no prescribed system for effective monitoring of these societies/centers as some societies are receiving quota on regular basis whereas some have not received the quota for the last one year. More surprising is that some societies have even received the quota without authorization and all this clearly indicates that the Department follows no parameters while making quota allocations.

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