Digvijaya accuses MP govt of causing loss to exchequer

Will the central government seek a clarification from the state of Madhya Pradesh for causing Rs 10 crore loss in doing so, Digvijaya Singh asked.

New Delhi, March 31: Congress member Digvijaya Singh on Friday accused the Madhya Pradesh government of renting 'Point of Sale' machines instead of buying them and thus causing a loss of around Rs 10 crore to the public exchequer.

Raising the issue during Question Hour, he alleged that Madhya Pradesh government has spent Rs 16.90 crore by paying rent on 22,403 POS machines installed to check malpractices and pilferage at fair price ration shops in the state.

He said if the machines would have been purchased, the state would have spent only Rs 6.71 crore instead.

"Will the central government seek a clarification from the state of Madhya Pradesh for causing Rs 10 crore loss in doing so," Singh asked.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Centre has to have faith in states and believe in what they do while implementing the Centre's policies.

"If all states are doing like this, then a Pandora's box will open," he said, adding that he will look into the issue.

Paswan said that 50 per cent of the cost was shared between the states and the Centre for installing POS machines at fair price ration shops.

As Singh insisted and kept on asking if the Centre would conduct a probe on this, Chairman Hamid Ansari intervened to say, "that is a matter to be dealt with in state's audit.

There is a process of audit in the country and there are audit procedures in place to take care of this."

Paswan, however, did not make a commitment of probing the matter and said states should be trusted.

According to the written reply, a sum of Rs 884 crore has been provided for the entire country to ensure that all fair price ration shops in the country have POS machines installed to stop any diverstion in subsidised ration stocks.

PTI