A PDS scam, which was both grave and amusing at the same time, has been exposed in Nibohra village near Agra. As it turns out Padam Singh, the PDS shop owner, had been distributing subsidized food grains to about 3,500 non existing recipients and was most likely siphoning off the allotted grains for his personal gains.
What makes this case amusing is the fact that of the 350 fake families Padam had created, some had names of Bollywood songs, vegetables, dry fruits, among others.
For example some names were from a Mohd Rafi song called ‘Teri galiyon mein na rakhenge kadam’ from the 1974 movie called Hawas. In the ration card, ‘Teri’ was the mother of ‘Galiyon’, ‘Rakhenge Kadam’ was the son of ‘Me Naa’ and ‘Aaj’ was the father of ‘Ke Baad’.
Apart from pop-culture, the owner also apparently had an affinity with fruits and vegetables. He had created a whole family of a 55 year old bachelor named Manohar Singh where ‘Aalu’ was the father of ‘Loki’, ‘Bhindi’ mother of ‘Baigan’, ‘Badam’ father of ‘Pistaa’, ‘Naariyal’ son of ‘Akharot’ and ‘Supaari’ was the father of ‘Long’. To top it off the owner was also apparently a fan of Nagin Dance as on one card he had named ‘Nagin’ as the mother of ‘Nach’.
The owner was reportedly supplying food grains to these ‘food items’ for the past two years. Here is the copy of a few:
This scam was exposed by a person named Bhagwan (first name only), who is the husband of the village’s Pradhan Kamala Devi. Apparently for the last two years, the owner was so busy selling food grains to Aalu Bhindi and others, that not even a single resident of Nibohra (for whom the shop is actually there) had received a single foodgrain from the shop.
This exercise of siphoning off the grains has ensured the cancelling of Padam’s licence by the local administration after the Yogi Adityanath Government took charge. Padam has apparently been running the shop for the past 5 years. In 2014 too, his license was cancelled but was later reinstated at the recommendation of the Fatehabad MLA.
Bhagwan and others had complained about this reinstatement, but were allegedly ignore by the police inspector. The fake ration cards were apparently created thereafter.
On 24th March, Bhagwan and his team had caught Padam loading three trucks at his PDS shop to transport them elsewhere. The police were informed and the trucks were seized. The Fatehabad SDM has assured of more stringent action once the total amount of loot has been ascertained. The SDM also claimed that the inspector who had disregarded the earlier complaint has been suspended.
Eon expected lines, this invoked an amused response from people on Twitter:
Public Distribution Scheme scan of food grains in UP. Father name Alu, sons called Loki, Bhindi. Mother is baingan ? pic.twitter.com/ypqJcCcU7z
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) March 28, 2017
I hope they stayed fresh atleast ??? https://t.co/4GooC95ISY
— Mrinal Bisht (@MRINAAL_BISHT) March 28, 2017
What’s so funny? Alu is name of a Chief Minister while Baingan is a journalist who loves to date politicians. These are legit names. pic.twitter.com/drwNyHr5Z6
— Eminent Intellectual (@padhalikha) March 28, 2017
Though on a serious note, people have been pointing out that the way to avoid such a scam is making Aadhar mandatory to avail PDS facility. The government has also passed a rule in this regard in February. Yesterday we had reported how mandatory Aadhar for mid-day meals had found a whopping 4.4 lakh fake students in just three states of Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram.
