In a State-wide sting operation, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) in Kerala detected large-scale illegal diversion of subsidised food grains earmarked for an estimated 95.7 lakh ration card holders from varying economic and social backgrounds. 

As part of the undercover operation titled Operation Food Safety, anti-corruption sleuths set up staged scenarios, posing as black marketeers seeking to purchase subsidised food grains from randomly chosen National Food Security Act (NFSA) warehouses and ration shops at at prices significantly below market rates, to build an entrapment case to expose the entrenched corruption that has cut heavily into public finances. 

(The State government spends an estimated ₹2,400 crore annually for food security and price control of essential commodities, including ₹100 crore for ration distribution, dealer commissions and doorstep delivery charges for senior and differently abled citizens.) 

A senior investigator told The Hindu that field intelligence and preliminary surveys by various government agencies had indicated that an estimated 30% of government-subsidised grains and food staples failed to reach the intended beneficiaries and were siphoned off by a mafia involving ration shop licensees, warehouse managers, transport contractors and errant Civil Supplies Department officials for blackmarket transactions, resulting in staggering losses amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees to the public exchequer. 

Investigators said they found that officials diverted a significant amount of subsidised food grains to poultry farmers and the hotel industry after accepting sizeable backhanders. In Thiruvananthapuram, the VACB found digital evidence of a ration dealer receiving regular payments amounting to lakhs of rupees annually from a poultry farm owner. 

They contacted scores of cardholders associated with the ration shop and found that the licensee had tampered with the biometric authentication system built into the electronic point of sale (E-POS) machine and misused one-time passwords (OTPs) received by beneficiaries on their Aadhaar-linked mobile phone numbers to subvert the system and legitimise black-marketing activities. Officials said the pattern was common across ration shops in the State. 

The VACB also found transporters using trucks without the mandatory tracking devices to ferry subsidised food grains from State-owned warehouses to ration shops and Supplyco depots, thereby opening the door to illegal diversion of food staples in bulk by subverting the Civil Supplies Department’s Vehicle Tracking and Fleet Management System. 

The VACB said that government officials aided the racket by turning a blind eye to fraudulent billing and glaring discrepancies in stock registers. Investigators said ration shop transactions were mostly on paper, and preliminary verification of physical inventories revealed an excess of food grains and food staples, including sugar, over the quantity entered in the stock register. 

Director General, VACB, Manoj Abraham, supervised the sting operation.