Congress disrupts House over PDS scam, demands names from govt

The police had also seized several documents that reportedly named many top functionaries of the state as the scam beneficiaries.

The PDS rice scam rocked the Chhattisgarh Assembly for the second day on Tuesday as the Congress disrupted the proceedings and asked the government to disclose the names of all beneficiaries.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of the state police had raided offices of the Chhattisgarh Civil Supplies Corporation last month and recovered around Rs 3.5 crore. ADG (ACB) Mukesh Gupta had noted that this money came from commission in PDS rice and was “distributed among many, from top to bottom.” He had claimed that “several top people are involved in the commission racket”.

The police had also seized several documents that reportedly named many top functionaries of the state as the scam beneficiaries. Since then, the state’s political and bureaucratic establishment is rife with speculation about the possible beneficiaries.

Taking a serious note of the matter, the Centre has also written to the state government asking it to furnish the probe details. The Congress has alleged that the seized documents mention several IAS officers, ministers and persons close to Chief Minister Raman Singh.