THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of honest officers who detect the diversion of ration articles by traders.
District supply officer Vijayakumar, who was instrumental in recovering 742 sacks of rice, 175 sacks of wheat and 15 sacks of polished rice from a godown at Poovar in the district on June 5, was transferred immediately to Kozhikode.
The godown owned by one Karthikeyan was reopened within three days. Earlier last year, the police had recovered 1,028 sacks of ration rice from the same godown. However, the case was hushed up allegedly following high-level intervention.
Recently at Maranalloor, 550 sacks of rice and 100 sacks of wheat were recovered from a godown.
The civil supplies officials did not take any action though panchayat officials had informed them about the owner of the godown.
The modus operandi of the godown owners is to smuggle rice meant for PDS by converting it to high- quality rice through a chemical process.
The civil supplies authorities had also recovered a machine worth Rs 2 crore used for the purpose from the Poovar godown.
All-India Ration Dealers Association general secretary Babychen Mukkadan told DC that 40 taluk supply officers were transferred last month. Those who wanted to get transfer to the places of their preference had to pay bribes.
They would recover the money by resorting to illegal practices and shutting their eyes to such diversions, Mr Mukkadan said.
