Hello,
It’s a we-said-so moment.
In an expose, Shreegireesh Jalihal had told you that an auction method the Union government uses to pick millers to process and distribute pulses stinks.
The auction method, which replaced a conventional yet anodyne process, allowed millers to rip the government of tonnes of pulses meant for the poor and armed forces and make profit, which had no measure. It lowered the guard against millers supplying poor-quality pulses. Now, the National Productivity Council, an autonomous government research agency headed by Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, deconstructed the auction method and has confirmed our findings.
The Collective has scooped the Council’s preliminary findings, which show the Union government's auctions worth more than Rs 4,600 crore were rigged to benefit a few big millers. But the government ignored the findings and continued with the auction method.
On behalf of the government, it was NAFED under the agriculture ministry that set up the exchequer-unfriendly auction platform where millers bid to win contracts to process raw pulses and deliver them to states. The Council has recommended that NAFED scrap the auction process.
After The Collective’s expose, NAFED has now stopped milling of pulses for welfare schemes. Instead, the Consumer Affairs Department decided in February this year to distribute only raw pulses, which the states can mill themselves.
Click here to read the story that tells what’s rotten in NAFED’s auctions