PDS rice worth Rs 90 L missing from Perni Nani’s godown

Machilipatnam : Rice worth about Rs 90 lakh meant for public distribution has been missing from the godown owned by YSR Congress leader and former minister Perni Venkatramaiah alias Nani.

The godown was rented out to the state civil supplies department. During the checking, the officials found out that rice worth Rs 89.72 lakh was missing from the godowns.

Managing director of AP Civil Supplies Corporation Manjeer Jilani instructed the officials to file a criminal case against Perni Nani.

He also ordered a full inquiry into the issue. Perni Nani in a letter written to joint collector Gitanjali Sharma last month said that rice was missing from his godown and expressed readiness to pay the cost of the missing rice.

The godown belonging to the former YSRCP minister with a capacity of 40,000 metric tonnes was rented by the civil supplies department and rice was stored there. The officials found out during an inspection that the rice went missing.

Perni Nani in his letter stated that 3,200 bags of rice was missing from the godown and owning responsibility, he expressed readiness to pay the amount as penalty to the Civil Supplies Cor-poration.

However, the officials found out that actually 3,700 bags of rice (185 tonnes) were missing when they checked on November 28 and 29. The officials informed this to managing director.

Managing director Manjeer Jilani instructed the officials that the cost of rice amounted to Rs 89.72 lakh and a fine of double the amount should be collected and a criminal case should al-so be registered against the perpetrators. The officials made it clear that the godown would be kept in the blacklist.