Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday evening announced that a Commission of Inquiry has been constituted to probe into the Rs 4,000 crore groundnut procurement scam and the four fire incidents that gutted the godowns where groundnut was stored.
The inquiry commission will be headed by retired Gujarat High Court judge, Justice H K Rathod and agencies like the CID, which is investigating the fire incidents and the FSL, which is also assisting in the probe, who will now submit their findings before the commission.
However, the announcement is not likely to be accepted wholeheartedly by opposition Congress, which has been demanding an inquiry by a sitting judge of the High Court.
The state government has come under a lot of fire over the multi-crore groundnut scam with the Congress alleging that attempts are being made to shield a couple of top state BJP leaders.
State home minister Pradipsinh Jadeja said that the government will not spare anybody involved in the scam.
"As many as 30 persons have been arrested so far and all others involved will be arrested and dealt with as per the law. The commission report will bring out the truth," he said.
Speaking to News18, Paresh Dhanani, Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly said that he will give a detailed statement explaining his position on Sunday, as he is yet to gather all details about the commission of inquiry and more importantly, its scope of duty. Dhanani, has for the past one month, been holding dharnas at various locations in Saurashtra, where groundnut has been stocked.
"Whenever this government has been cornered and it found itself in a tight spot, a Commission of Inquiry was set up. This has happened on at least three occasions in the recent past. Where are the findings of the earlier inquiry commissions? I suspect this is yet another attempt to brush aside a huge scam," the Congress leader told News18.
Last year in October, just ahead of the assembly elections, the Gujarat government announced that it will purchase groundnut from farmers at Rs 4,500 per quintal, even as the existing prices of groundnut at that time was around Rs 3,750 per quintal.
The central government had asked the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Gujarat State Co-operative Cotton Federation (GUJCOT) to purchase groundnut from farmers at an MSP of Rs 4,450, while the state government announced an additional bonus of Rs 50 per quintal on the MSP.
A coterie comprising of officials of NAFED and GUJCOT along with local politicians and middlemen, have allegedly sold off groundnut procured from farmers to oil millers.
The stocks of groundnut were then adulterated with sand and pebbles to show no loss of weight in the stocks after groundnut was illegally sold off to millers. The four instances of fire at godowns are alleged attempts to destroy evidence that the sacks of groundnut had been mixed with sand and pebbles.
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