Kumar Rajiv Nayan
Ara :SDO, Ara, Vaibhav Srivastava,, along with Assistant District Supply Officer, Bhojpur, Abhay Kant Mishra, Supply Inspector Rashmi Pandey and police force, on a tip off, conducted raids at two PDS shops at Maharana Pratap Nagar under Nawada police station, Ara, on September 23, 2020, and seized 733 quintal of grains packed in 1,400 bags..
When they were taking the seized grains to the State Food Corporation godwon, hundreds of PDS dealers went on rampage and tried to prevent the officials from carrying the seized grains to the SFC godwon but the officials pacified them. An FIR was lodged by Nawada police station against the PDS dealers on the statement of Supply Inspector (Urban) Rashmi Pandey.
SDO Vaibhav Srivastava, however, denied any protest and said that Mayor, Ara Municipal Corporation, Ruby Tiwari, social worker Abhishek Tiwari and a number of consumers had complained against the PDS dealers : Anand Shankar and Prabhawati Devi, alleging irregularities in distribution of grains among the consumers. They had also written to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, and several senior officials of the department about it two months ago. In the light of the complaints, the raid was conducted. He said that during inspection, largescale irregularities were detected in distribution of grains among the consumers since April 2020. He said that 437 quintal of rice, 268 quintal of wheat, 17.50 quintal of pulse, and 10.50 quintal of gram worth about Rs. 11 lakh packed in 1400 bags were seized.
On the other hand, PDS dealer Anand Shankar said that someone had hatched conspiracy against him and he and Prabhawati Devi were implicated in false case.