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Did a scam in the CM's 'Anna Bhagya' scheme get Anurag Tewari killed?

  • Anurag Tewari's mysterious death in Lucknow continues to be a mystery even as details of his work are starting to emerge
  • According to a Suvarna News report, officials in the Food and Civil Supplies had made additional rice purchases under 'Anna Bhagya'
  • However, the report alleged, these purchases were made to help rice hoarders and burdened the exchequer, instead of helping the poor 
  • Was Anurag Tewari, who stated in his own WhatsApp messages that he feared for his life, uncovering a giant scam in Karnataka?
Anurag Tewari was after rice hoarders who were feeding into the CMs favourite Anna Bhagya scheme Report

Is Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's favourite 'Anna Bhagya' project feeding rice hoarders in the black market, rather than the poor? It appears so, if the reports surrounding the death of IAS officer Anurag Tewari, is anything to go by.

Anurag Tewari, who was the commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies department, was reportedly after a major rice scam worth Rs 450 crore. It has come to light that under the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme, additional rice was purchased from Chattisgarh, when the state government had already received its quota of rice - for the project - from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Union government. The  state government had paid Rs 600 crore for the two lakh metric tonne of rice purchased from Chattisgarh. But, it paid a mere Rs 300 per quintal rice to the FCI, reports Suvarna News.

Questions are being raised why the state government allegedly purchased rice from Chattisgarh - by paying hefty amount - when there was adequate stock of rice provided by the Central government.

The whole rice scam is now being linked to the rice hoarders. It is said that some of the officials in the department have allegedly supplied the rice to private rice milling units causing huge loss to the state exchequer.

For, the Central government had fixed Rs 10 to mill one quintal of rice. But it is alleged that Rs 45 was paid per every quintal to rice mill in the last four years. The difference of Rs 35 has now cost the state exchequer of Rs 10 crore, it is alleged.

Anurag Tewari who had got the whiff of the rice scam - which is being said to be as big as the sugar scam in the state - was gathering details to expose it. In fact, retired IAS officer MN Vijay Kumar too had claimed to have received a mail by an unknown sender that Anurag was after the rice scam. But the state government has been rubbishing the reports that there was any scam in the department. And even if there was one, it was not aware of it. Will the state government now form a special team to investigate into the reports of scam?

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